A community based study on factors influencing body mass index of adolescent girls in urban area of Bagalkot, Karnataka

Abstract

Introduction: Among adolescents, girls are a doubly vulnerable group due to deep-rooted gender discrimination and other socio-cultural factors that are prevailing in our Indian society. Objective: To study the factors influencing body mass index of adolescent girls residing in the urban field practice area of S. N. Medical College, Bagalkot. Study design: A Community based cross sectional study. Setting: Field practice area of urban health training center, Department of Community Medicine, S. Nijalingappa Medical College in Bagalkot.Participants: 400 unmarried adolescent girls. Sampling: Systematic random sampling. Statistical Analysis: Data was tabulated in Microsoft Excel 2010 and analyzed by using Open Epi software. P-value was calculated using chi-square test and difference was accepted significant at more than 95% (p-value <0.05). Results: Factors significantly associated with thinness were mother's literacy, family size, mid day meal and dietary intake less than RDA (p<0.05). Factors not significantly associated with thinness were religion, and father's literacy, Conclusion: It was concluded that the prevalence of thinness was significantly high in girls whose mothers were illiterates. Thinness was also seen in girls from large families and Dietary intake less than RDA.