Nutritional status of adolescent girls in rural Kathmandu

Proper nutrition is very essential for adolescent girls to improve the quality of not only their life but also the life of future generation as well. Despite the importance of this crucial period of life, there is little information on adolescent girl's nutritional status. So, realizing this gap researcher tried to assess nutritional status of the adolescent girls of rural setting as a part of the study with the objective to examine the nutritional status of adolescent girls and identify the determining factors. The study was done in Goldhunga VDC with total sample size of 254 married and unmarried adolescent girls of age 12-19 years selected by the convenient sampling approach. This study used both quantitative and qualitative tools of data collection.The study finding shows poor nutritional status in the form of stunted growth that is common among girls. The mean height of respondents fall below -2 SD NCHS reference height-for-age standard and are categorized as high risk of malnutrition. These girls are identified as more risk for reproduction because of short stature. Weight seems better in comparison of height. Mean weight of all respondents fall between -1SD and - 2 SD.