INTRODUCTION Nutritional adequacy is one of the key determinants of the quality of human life. In the Indian sub-continent, female nutritional stress begins in childhood and continues through adolescence into adult. Attention to nutrition is therefore called for throughout the life cycle of females. Seasonal and climatic changes determine the agricultural cropping pattern and vary the production and availability of local foodstuffs, thus affecting the household food security, dietary practices in turn the nutritional security. The problem of malnutrition in developing countries encompasses a spectrum of deficien- cies of which the most devastating are that of micronutrients, especially iron deficiency anae- mia and nutritional blindness. Anaemia is one of the glaring deficiencies in young adolescent girls, probably, due to low intake of haemopoietic nutrients since childhood, increased demand for nutrients coupled with menstrual loss of iron. A study was, thus, undertaken to examine the seasonal changes in nutritional status of adole- scent girls from rural and urban areas of Dharwad, in terms of anthropometry and dietary adequacy. MATERIAL AND METHODS The study was carried out between June 2001 and May 2002 in the beginning and end of each season, viz., summer (February to May), rainy (June to September) and winter (October to January). Keeping Dharwad as centre, two villa- ges of Dharwad taluka (Mugad and Hebballi) situated in opposite direction and within the radius of 8 to 10 km were selected for the study. Two areas of Dharwad city were included to serve as urban locality. A total of 80 adolescent girls were randomly selected with ages ranging from 13 to 15 years from the rural and urban areas of Dharwad taluka identifying 40 subjects from each area. The nutritional status of the subjects was assessed by anthropometry and dietary intake in different seasons. Anthropometric measurements included height, weight, waist and hip circum- ferences, using which indices, viz., body mass index (BMI) and waist to hip ratio (WHR) were © Kamla-Raj 2004 J. Hum. Ecol., 15(2): 147-151 (2004) Seasonal Variations in Nutritional Status of Adolescent Girls K. S. Deepa, Pushpa Bharati and Rama K. Naik computed. The individuals were further classified into different classes of chronic energy deficiency based on BMI (Garrow, 1987) and WHR (Lean et al., 1995). The information on daily intake of food was collected by 24-hour recall method for one day using the proforma of National Institute of Nutrition and the intake of energy and blood forming nutrients were computed using Annapurna Software and were compared with ICMR recommendations. The data was analysed by Factorial Completely Randomised Design (CRD). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The seasonal variations in anthropometric measurements of adolescent girls are shown in Table 1. The anthropometric measurements recorded were higher during winter than summer and rainy season. The girls irrespective of locality were taller and heavier (149.32 cm and 36.2 kg, respectively) during winter compared to rainy (148.21 cm and 35.45 kg, respectively) and summer (148.02 cm and 34.90 kg, respectively). However, these differences were statistically not significant. Similarly, irrespective of age and locality, the waist and hip circumferences were higher during winter (56.84 and 72.76 cm, respectively) than rainy (56.71 and 72.42 cm, respectively) and summer (56.46 and 72.39 cm, respectively). Higher anthropometric measurements during winter and rainy seasons coincides with harvest and availability of foods. Further, these seasons are known for celebration of varied festivals, viz., Nagara Panchami, Ganesha Chaturthi, Dasara, Deepawali to name a few. It is a custom to prepare special foods like cereals, pulses and oilseed- based laddus, pulse usalis, several sweets like godhi huggi, modaka, holige, karigadabu, karchikai during these days. These foods are rich source of growth promoting nutrie-nts like calorie, protein and fat along with suppo-rting B- complex vitamins. The consumption of these foods during rainy and winter seasons might have resulted in increased height and weight, so also the waist and hip circumferences compared to summer. The distribution of subjects based on body