Prevalence of Underweight, Overweight and Its Associated Factors among Adolescent Students in Finote Selam Town, Amhara Region, Ethiopia

Adolescence is the transition between life as a child and life as an adult covering the ages between 10-19 years. This study aimed to assess adolescent nutritional status and associated factors among school-going adolescents in Finote Selam town, Ethiopia, 2018. 

A school-based cross-sectional study was used. A total of 437 adolescent students were included in the study. Stratified and simple random sampling techniques were employed to select study subjects. The data were entered using Epi info version 7 and analyzed using SPSS version 20 software. A binary logistic regression analysis was employed to identify factors associated with underweight. Crude and adjusted odds ratios with 95% level significance were used to measure the strength of association and statistical significance was declared at p-value less than 0.05. 

The overall prevalence of underweight, normal, and overweight among adolescent students at Finote Selam town were 46.2%, 51.0%, and 2.7%, respectively. Being male adolescent students, adolescent students who came from a rural area, Adolescent students who were born from an illiterate father, Adolescents from uneducated mothers, adolescent students who were from family size of greater than or equal to five were significantly associated with underweight at a P-value

Underweight was the major prevalent problem in the study area. Sex, place of residence, father`s education level, mother’s education level, family size and father`s occupation were important factors associated with underweight among the respondents. Therefore, the influence of these factors should be considered to develop strategies for reducing malnutrition in the town.