This study was undertaken to investigate the relation between household food insecurity and mental health problems in teenage girls living in urban slums. This community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in 5 urban slums in Varanasi, India, between September 2016 and July 2017. A probability proportion to size (PPS) method was employed to select 5 of 210 urban slums at a first stage, and in the second stage, 418 teenage girls were chosen randomly from selected households. The Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) and mental health inventory tools were employed to assess food insecurity and mental health status. Multivariable logistic regression analysis with at a 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to assess the association between household food insecurity and mental health status. Of 418 respondents, 47.6% were food insecure; 64.1%, 57.7%, and 58.4% had high levels of anxiety, depression, or psychological distress, respectively; and 57.2% exhibited a medium level of loss of behavioral control. Furthermore, teenage girls from food insecure households were more likely to have high levels of anxiety, depression, loss of behavioral control and psychological distress than those living in food secure households. This study shows food insecurity is independently associated with mental health problems among teenage girls. Food insecurity in Indian slums should be addressed by specific public health intervention programs that provide access to sufficient safe, nutritious food.
Aim: India has one of the fastest growing youth populations in the world and adolescent girls of age 13 to 19 year constitute nearly to 66 million. Nutritional deficiencies have far reaching consequences, especially in adolescent girls. Adolescents are more vulnerable to malnutrition. 1. To assess the nutritional status of teenage adolescent girls and 2. To determine the association between socio demographic profile and nutritional status. Methodology: A cross sectional study was carried out to assess the association between socio demographic profile and nutritional status of teen age adolescent girl in Varanasi city. A total no 418 teen age adolescents of 13 to 19 years were selected from urban slum of Varanasi during 2016. Results & Discussion: Nutritional status was assessed by anthropometric measurements. Result shows that 60.3% of adolescent girls were undernourished l 35.2% were normal and only 4.6% were overweight. Age and socio economic status of adolescent girls were significantly associated with their nutritional status (p < 0.05). Conclusion: It was found that higher proportions of adolescent girls were undernourished. This indicates that adolescents in urban slums need health awareness and importance of nutrition to maintain nutritional status.
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