International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | September 2019 | Vol 6 | Issue 9 Page 4034 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Reddy SUK et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2019 Sep;6(9):4034-4042 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article Nutritional status and dietary intake among unmarried adolescent girls in rural area of Chittoor district: a community based survey S. Uday Kumar Reddy, Sirshendu Chaudhuri*, Syeda Fathima Amrin, Gunasekaran Rabeka INTRODUCTION Appropriate growth and development in adolescence (10- 19 years) plays a critical role in the human life cycle. This period is considered as a bridge between childhood and adulthood. A child enters the adolescent stage with various major factors which control his/her future adulthood like biological, physical social and mental factors. The biological factors include genetics, epigenetics, and natural endowment. Social factors include local and state level policies, the influence of community, peer group, school environment, and family. 1 Most importantly, adult productivity depends upon the physical and neuro-cognitive development that is attained during the adolescent period. Amongst such factors, adequate nutrition probably plays a pivotal role in attaining such changes in adolescents. ABSTRACT Background: Nutritional status and dietary intake during adolescent period play a crucial role in their mental and physical development. Objectives of the present study were to estimate the prevalence of undernutrition, as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), among unmarried adolescent girls in rural area of Chittoor district; to estimate the average daily intake of different macro and micro-nutrients, i.e., calorie, protein and iron, by the same group by 24-hour dietary recall method; and to identify individual and family level determinants for undernutrition and decreased intake of nutrients. Methods: In this cross-sectional community-based survey anthropometric measurements were done, and dietary intake of unmarried adolescent girls was assessed by 24-hour recall method. Results: Majority is suffering from poor nutrient intake. This is more prominent for calcium [25.1-40.9% of the recommended daily allowance (RDA)] and energy intake (68.6-88.9% of RDA). Only 55% of the adolescents get iron supplementation; rests consume minimal iron (8.5gm) on average. Prevalence of thinness and stunting was 29.4% (95% CI: 20.4%, 38.4%) and 21.4% (95% CI: 13.3, 29.5%) respectively. Economic and housing conditions were associated with low dietary intake and poor nutritional status. Considerable cluster-wise variation exists for both the conditions. Conclusions: High prevalence of stunting and thinness together with substantial macro and micro-nutrient deficiency exist among adolescent girls. Existing national programs for this age group needs adequate supervision. Awareness development regarding locally available low-cost nutritious food together with periodic anthropometric measurements is required. Keywords: Adolescent, Determinants, Dietary intake, Nutritional status, Stunting, Thinness Department of Community Medicine, Apollo Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Chittoor, AP, India Received: 25 June 2019 Accepted: 12 August 2019 *Correspondence: Dr. Sirshendu Chaudhuri, E-mail: sirshendusisu@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20194013