A study on the morbidity pattern in adolescent school girls

Abstract

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) has defined adolescence as the age group of 10-19 years. According to World Health Organisation, adolescents constitute about one fifth of the world population, and in India they constitute about 21% of the total population. Adolescent girls are the worst sufferers of various forms of malnutrition because of their increased nutritional needs and low social power. If their nutritional needs are not met, they are likely to give birth to undernourished children, thus transmitting under nutrition to future generation. Objective was to study the various socio-demographic factors affecting the nutritional status in adolescent girls. Methods: A school based cross-sectional study was carried out in Lucknow district. Adolescent girls of age groups 10-19 years were included in the study. Data was collected, compiled and tabulated using Microsoft Excel and analysed using SPSS 17.0 version for calculation of percentages. Results: Rural background, low socioeconomic status, illiteracy, birth rate and order, income and number of members in a family have shown to be significant determinants of morbidity pattern in the adolescent girls. Conclusions: Among the various morbidities eye problem was seen in maximum no of adolescent girls. Eye problem was present in 31% of adolescent girls followed by respiratory (12.8%) and ear (11.5%) disease. Skin disease was present in 3.1% of adolescent girls, which was more in rural girls than in urban girls, may be due to better hygienic practice in urban school girls.

Morbidity pattern and its correlates among adolescent girls residing in rural and urban areas of Haldwani, India

“…6 Sinha et al in Lucknow, found vaginal discharge in 8.1%, which is higher than in present study. 13 Nirmala et al in Kerala found endocrinal problems including thyroid enlargement in 7.5% among unmarried girls between 16-18 years of age from urban area, this is much higher than 0.91% in present study, which may be due to majority of girls during their early adolescence in our study. 20 Sachan et al in Lucknow found religion and type of family were insignificantly related to total morbidity among girls, however in present study general morbidity was significantly more among girls belonging to nuclear families and Muslim/others group when respectively compared with girls from joint families and Hindu girls.…”

“…5 However, skin diseases in study by Yerpude et al in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh was 22.2% among urban school adolescent girls, 10.5% in Hari Krishna et al's study, and 3.1% in Sinha et al's study. [11][12][13] Refractive errors in present study were present in 31.17% girls with significantly more of rural girls affected as compared to urban, with the visual acuity varying from 6/9 to 6/36 in better eye. Inadequate correction was detected in 26 girls of which 17 were rural and 9 urban.…”

Morbidity pattern in the school going adolescent girls of rural and urban Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh

“…9 Sinha et al in a study conducted on Adolescent girls in Lucknow district found that eye problem was seen in 31% of adolescent girls. 10 In the present study more of urban school going adolescent girls (3.2%) had Hypertension as compared to (2.5%) of rural area and 12.5% adolescent girls were found to be prehypertensive. Similar findings were seen by Mohan et al in school going children of Ludhiana, Punjab found that prevalence of sustained hypertension was 6.69% in urban and in rural area it was 2.56%.…”

“…The major health problems in adolescent age group in India are cited to be nutrient deficiency, macro-nutrient deficiency resulting in underweight (51%) and stunting (34%), micro-nutrient deficiencies especially iron deficiency resulting in anaemia, more common in girls (38.45%). 6 Important health issues which are more common in school going adolescents are malnutrition (31%), psychological problems (34%) including stress (27.3%), anxiety (38.7%), depression (31.9%), social phobia (27%), eye problem (31%), dental problem (35.34%) and in female menstrual problem accounting for 79.5%. Other health issue are skin diseases, tonsillitis, respiratory diseases and ear diseases.…”

“…Other health issue are skin diseases, tonsillitis, respiratory diseases and ear diseases. [6][7][8] Adolescent girls are the mothers of tomorrow, and no edifice can be built on a foundation that is weak, and if we could not give a safe and secure today to the mother of tomorrow, it will be futile to expect the future generation to be mentally and physically healthy. 9 Most of the studies on morbidity pattern of school going adolescent girls available have been conducted in western countries.…”