Dietary Practices and Nutrition Status of Adolescents Attending Day Secondary Schools in Kenya
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Date
2019
Authors
. Munene, Fridah
Kimiywe, Judith
Chege, Peter
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Food Science & Nutrition Research
Abstract
Regular meal consumption, consistent physical activity habits and a diet characterized by a favourable nutrient
profile all contribute to a healthy lifestyle. Regrettably, the eating behaviours of adolescents are characterized by
high consumption of ready to eat foods, frequent snacking especially of food of low nutrition quality and unhealthy
weight loss practices such as skipping meals, more so breakfast. The poor choices on what to eat and snack on, made
by the adolescents, puts them at risk of being underweight, overweight and or obese. Under nutrition, overweight
and obesity are issues of public health concern, as they world faces the double burden of malnutrition. The aim
of the study was to determine the dietary habits and nutrition status of adolescents in mixed day public secondary
schools. As such, the study adopted a cross-sectional analytical study design. The study population comprised
of adolescents in mixed public day secondary schools in Thika, Kiambu County, Kenya where 212 adolescents
responded to the study instruments. Data was collected using researcher administered structured questionnaires.
Data on dietary intake was collected using 7-day food diary and a seven-day food frequency questionnaire.
Anthropometric measures of Weight, height; which was used to calculate body mass index and waist circumference
as well hip circumference to calculate waist-hip ratio were also taken to determine the nutrition status. Dietary
intake data was analysed using nutri-survey, while WHO anthro-plus was used to calculate the nutrition status
of the adolescents. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS (IBMTM) version 20. The results indicated that
adolescent skip meals especially the breakfast meal, consume high sugar food, and carbonated drinks. The average
energy intake per day was 2467.1±723.96 Kcal with only 21.1% of boy and 35.9% girls attained the RDA. Majority
of the respondents 88.7% had z-scores of between < +1sd and >-2sd, 5.7% were at risk of metabolic disorders as
assess using waist circumference while 4.7% had abdominal obesity when waist-hip ratio was determined.
Description
Keywords
Adolescents, Dietary practice, Nutrition status, Secondary schools.
Citation
Fridah K. Munene, Judith O. Kimiywe, Peter M. Chege. Dietary Practices and Nutrition Status of Adolescents Attending Day Secondary Schools in Kenya. Food Sci Nutr Res. 2019; 2(2): 1-6.