Assessment of nutritional status and its related factors among female adolescent girls: A school based study in Arar city, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The objective of the present study was to assess the nutritional status of adolescent girls and to investigate its association with socio-economic status, eating and physical activity pattern.

A cross-sectional survey-was conducted among adolescent girls (15 and 19 years) and stratified random sampling technique was done in 4 schools of Arar city, KSA. Subjects were asked to fill pre-tested questionnaire about socio-economic status, dietary-and physical activity pattern and their height and weight were measured and BMI (kg/m²) was calculated. SPSS version 22 (2017) was used in entering, managing survey data and to analyze the obtained data. A p-value<0.05 was considered statistically significant for individual variables.

The final study sample consisted of 322 adolescent girls (response rate of 90.96%), with a mean age of 17.14 ± 1.15 years. More than one-fifth of the study population was overweight and obese, moreover, about three-fifth of the study population were of normal weight, while 19.2% were underweight. A significant relationship was observed between nutritional status with the mother’s occupation and education, family size, and a number of meals taken per day.

Adolescent’s populations face two contrasting nutrition situations, under and over nutrition. This study will help in generating imperative data and recommendations for managing nutrition-related problems in adolescent girls in Saudi Arabia.