ABSTRACT

The aim of the study was to examine the dietary habits and nutritional status of artisan adolescent girls in Umuahia North Local Government Area, Abia State. Specifically, the study sought to determine the socio-economic characteristics of artisan adolescent girls; assess the dietary habits of artisan adolescent girls in Umuahia; ascertain their nutritional status using waist- hip- ratio and mid- upper arm circumference and correlate their socio-economic characteristics with their nutritional status. A cross-sectional study design was used for the study. Those who were eligible for inclusion into this cross-sectional study were artisan adolescent girls aged 10-19 years drawn from three skill acquisition centers in Umuahia North LGA. The sample size of 303 was obtained and 101 were selected from each of the three centres. A structured questionnaire was used to solicit information on the girls’ socio-demographic characteristics and dietary habits. The data generated was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as percentages and frequencies. Pearson correlation analysis was used to determine the relationship between the socio-economic characteristics with their nutritional status. The results revealed that majority of the respondent’s skipped meals. Of those who skipped meals, majority (42%) skipped breakfast and the reason for skipping meals by most (33%) of the respondents was to avoid sleeping. Apparently, majority of artisan adolescent girls in Umuahia had normal weight of 82%, normal height of 94%. In Table 4.5 a higher proportion of (61%) of late adolescents had normal weight compared to the normal weight of early adolescents (33%).The study revealed that there is relationship between socio-economic characteristics of respondents and nutritional status especially in education, pocket money, amount of money spent per week household size. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that parents as part of their responsibilities should provide in their wards chop-box diversified foods of good nutritional value and pocket money to enhance their nutritional well-being.