Prevalence of Obesity and Undernutrition Among Adolescents and Their Dietary Habits: A Cross Sectional Study in a Tertiary Care Centre

Original Research Article. 5 | P a g e Int J Med Res Prof.2023 May; 9(3); 5-10. www.ijmrp.com Prevalence of Obesity and Undernutrition Among Adolescents and Their Dietary Habits: A Cross Sectional Study in a Tertiary Care Centre Amandeep Kaur1, Harshindar Kaur2*, Avneet Kaur3, Amanpreet Kaur4 1Assistant Professor, 2Associate Professor, 3,4Post Graduate Student, Department of Pediatrics, Government Medical College, Patiala, Punjab, India. ABSTRACT Background: World Health Organization (WHO) defined adolescence as a period of life ranging from 10 to 19 years old which is the transition from dependent childhood to independent adulthood. According to the 2019–21 National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), the prevalence of obesity among women and men increases. Overweight and obesity in younger age group lead to various non-communicable diseases in the future. The studies on adolescent dietary intake and prevalence of obesity are limited in north India, so the aim of this study was to check the prevalence of obesity among adolescents their dietary intake, type of food intake, impact of these dietary habits on prevalence of obesity and to predict the chance of metabolic syndrome among adolescents in tertiary care centre. Materials and Methods: It was a cross-sectional descriptive study design conducted on 1000 adolescent patients aged 10- 15 yrs of rural and urban area from OPD or IPD in Government Medical College, Patiala, Punjab from August 2022 to April 2023, total 9 months. The patients or their parents who gave consent and aged 10 to 15 years were included in this study. Adolescents with diagnosed cases of any chronic disease as congenital heart disease, chronic renal failure, chronic liver failure or any blood disorders and had physical deformities were excluded from this study. Results: Out of these 1000 patients, 530 patients were of normal weight, 260 were underweight. Overweight and obesity were seen in 110 and 100 patients respectively. 54.55% of overweight and 70% of obese patients belonged to upper middle class as compared to well-nourished patients among them 69.8% belonged to upper lower class (p value of 0.021). Cereal intake was 300 - 400 grams per day among 56.6% of well-nourished patients as compared to underweight (53.85%) overweight (63.64%) and obese patients (70%) consumed 200 -300 gram of cereals per day that was statistically significant (p value= 0.04). 40% of obese and 81.8% of overweight patients took junk food three times per week a s compared to 51% of normal weight patients did not consume junk food (p value of 0.001). Hypertension was seen in 60% of obese patients, 18.18% of overweight patients (p value of 0.001). Fatty Liver by ultrasonography was seen in 70% of obese, 54.5% of overweight as compared to only 13.2% of normal weight patients had fatty liver. (p value of 0.001). Conclusion: Our results reveal that the incidence of overweight and obesity is increasing among adolescents. Multiple factors are associated with adolescent obesity like sedentary lifestyle, working parents, improper diet, eating junk food and frequent restaurant visits. Our study observed the obese patients had deranged lipid profile, hypertension, increase liver enzymes and fatty liver on ultrasonography. So, all these factors are known for increasing risk of metabolic syndrome and other non-communicable diseases in future.