ABSTRACT

The study aim to determine the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, assess anthropometric status, assess the dietary pattern and to know the relationship between socio-economic status and anthropometric measurements of adolescents in Umuahia South, Abia State. The study was a cross sectional study. A descriptive analysis and Pearson correlation was used to analyze the data using SPSS version 2020, result revealed that (55%) of the respondents were between the ages of 13-15 years old, majority (53%) of the respondents were female while (47%) were male. Christianity is predominant (99.5%), and 41.5% of the fathers and 36% of the mothers were civil or public service roles with majority of them having attained tertiary education. WHO anthro-plus software was used to determine the HAZ score and BMIAZ score of the respondents in this study. The prevalence of severe wasting among public and private school in this study was 2% and 3% while overweight was 7% and 8.5% and a low level of overweight was observed in public school than private school. Based on the WHR, 33% of respondents from public school are at low risk while 27% from private school, 11% from public school are at moderate risk while 11.5% from private school and 6% from public school are at high risk while 11.5% from private school. The prevalence of overweight among male and female in this study was 4.5% and 11% while severe wasting was 3.5% and 1.5%. The study also revealed that majority of the respondents (61%) ate thrice daily, 25% ate four times, 9% ate two times while very few (2%, 2% and 1%) ate five times, above five times and once. The study revealed that there was low consumption of fruits and vegetables, moderate consumption of animal protein and legumes, nuts and cereals while there was a high consumption of snacks, roots and tubers and fats and oil. Therefore, it is important to implement school-based programs that promote healthy lifestyles, including nutrition education and physical activity and ensures that these programs are accessible to students across all socioeconomic levels.