Prevalence and Socio-demografic Determinants of Under-Weight and Pre-obesity among in -School Adolescents in Olorunda Local Goverment Area, Osun State, Nigeria

摘要

INTRODUCTION: Adolescent obesity is under-estimated in this part of the world. However, there is a global change in the trend of over-weight and obesity in both developed and developing countries. OBJECTIVES: The study determined the prevalence and socio-demographic determinants of under-weight and pre-obesity among in-school adolescents in Olorunda Local Government Area of Osun State. METHODOLOGY: A descriptive cross-sectional study using a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire was carried out in Olorunda Local government area in Osun State. Ten out of the twenty five secondary schools in the LGA were randomly selected. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 497 respondents from the ten schools. Anthropometric method was used to asses the nutritional status, body mass index was calculated and data was analyzed with SPSS version 11. Univariate and bivariate analysis were done and the critical level was set at 0.05. RESULTS: Majority of the respondents were between ages 15 and 19 years (60.5%), male to female ratio was 1.1:1.0. None of the study participants was obese while 3.8% of them were pre-obese and 41.2% of them were underweight. Socio-demographic factors found to be statistically significantly associated with pre-obesity were female gender, higher educational level of mothers and living with both parents (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Under-nutrition remains a major nutritional problem in adolescents; pre-obesity/over-weight is becoming an identifiable emerging nutritional problem while obesity is seemingly not a problem yet in adolescent school-aged children in this environment. Researchers should monitor the trend. Nutrition education in various schools should target under-nutrition as well as over-nutrition.