Effects Of Dietary Diversity And Eating Behaviours On Adolescent Girls Nutritional Status In Government Schools Akaki Kality Subcity Addis Ababa Ethiopia

Adolescence is a period of rapid growth and maturation in human development that demandsrnextra nutrients and energy to support growth. Focusing on adolescent’s nutrition, especiallyrngirls, provides a unique opportunity to break the intergenerational cycles of malnutrition.rnHowever, there is little information about adolescent eating behaviours, dietary diversificationrnand nutritional status of adolescent girls, especially urban and school based. This study aimed tornassess the effects of dietary diversity and eating behaviors on schoolgirls nutritional status inrngovernment schools in Akaki Kality sub-city, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A total of 384 adolescentrngirls between the ages of 10 to 19 years who were registered and attended in the selected 12rngovernment primary and secondary schools in the year 2019/2020 were selected throughrnprobabilistic two-stage sampling technique. The study used both quantitative and qualitativernresearch methods. Descriptive, bivariate, and econometric analysis (Ordered and multinomialrnlogistic regression) computed by STATA V14. Statistical significance was considered at p < 0.05rnand the strength of statistical association was assessed by odds ratio with 95% confidencernintervals. Qualitative data collected through focus discussion group discussion using a semistructured questionnaire. Mean age of schoolgirls was 15.67 years (± 1.596). Overall stuntingrnand thinness of schoolgirls were 15.0% (60/384) and 14.1% (54/384) respectively and aboutrn5.2%(20/384) schoolgirls were overweight and almost half of schoolgirls had low dietaryrndiversity score with their mean (±SD) dietary diversity score of 3.61 (± 1.33). The risk factorsrnfor stunting were schoolgirls who used to drink sugary fluids [OR: 18, 95% CI (2.49- 130.89)],rnschoolgirls who often feel hungry in the week [OR: 5.2, 95% CI (1.95- 14.05)], schoolgirlsrnwhose family lower income status [OR: 4.97, 95% CI (2.46- 10.06)], and schoolgirls whosernlower BMI/age [OR: 1.53, 95% CI (1.27- 1.84)]. Similarly, the risk factors for thinness werernschoolgirls who used to drink sugary fluids [OR: 13.84, 95% CI (1.74-109.97)], schoolgirlsrnwhose family lower income status [OR: 2.29, 95% CI (1.33-3.92)], schoolgirls who used tornpractice daily eat on late [OR: 9.77, 95% CI (4.60- 20.72)] and irregular and who neverrnperform enough healthy exercise [OR: 1.95, 95% CI (1.07- 3.55)]. This study providedrnimportant indicator for the nutritional status of ''tomorrow’s mothers’’ therefore; Akaki Kalityrnsubcity education office should maintain the school feeding programme to mitigate poorrnnutrition outcome following erratic feeding and meal skipping behaviours. Family should keeprnattention and watch schoolgirls eating behaviours, weight, and health status since this is thernsecond opportunity to create feature generation through healthy growing feature mothers.

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