Nutritional Status, Dietary Practices and Nutrition Related Beliefs of High School Girls in Urban Area of Bangalore City

Abstract

The study was conducted to explore the nutritional status, dietary practices and nutrition related beliefs of high school girls' age between twelve to seventeen years. One hundred and fifty high school girls from two government schools of Bangalore were selected for the study by stratified random sampling. The research design was descriptive analytical and cross sectional. A semi-structural questionnaire was used to collect the data on dietary practices and nutrition related beliefs and observational checklist was used to collect on nutritional parameter. The finding revealed that 72.5% girls were malnourished out of which 69.2% were underweight and 3.3% were overweight. Statistical analysis used was simple proportion and chi-square test which revealed that the majority 76.6% girls were found anemic. It may be due to the poor economic condition as the most of the girls' 78% were belonged to the low and lower middle income families where their parents were partly skilled, unskilled and home-makers. Result shows that there was statistical association between nutritional status and statement of nutrition related beliefs that eating non-vegetarian food and green leafy vegetable improve the quality of blood. As a whole, the dietary practices of high school girls were inadequate. There is a dire need to educate the parents and teachers who must impart knowledge about nutrition related practices accurately.