ABSTRACT

This study was carried out with the objective to assess the lifestyle pattern and anthropometric status of adolescent in-school girls of public secondary schools in Umuahia North LGA of Abia State. A simple random sampling technique was used to select two boarder secondary schools. A purposive sample of each school was taken. Majority of the students in the study area were day students leading to inadequate female in-school boarders from both schools. Therefore, 254 adolescents were gotten according to the age specificity and objectives of the study. The Statistical Package for Service Solution (SPSS version 22) was used to analyze the data. The anthropometric data (weight and height) was used to obtain the body mass index (BMI) of the adolescent in-school girls, which about 45% of the girls were under weight, while 52.6% were normal. Waist circumference and hip circumference was used to obtain waist-hip ratio. Body mass index was calculated as the relationship of weight in kg to height in meters squared. The socio-economic information of the respondents revealed that 100.00 % of the respondents were boarders and females. However, 70.60 % were between age range of above 14 years to 19 years, as majority were Christians (83.40 %), hence 16.60 % were Islam. The socio-economic characteristics of the respondents parents showed that majority of the respondents fathers have secondary education (55.7%), while their mothers have majorly a primary education. Occupation of both respondents revealed that majority were (46.6% and 43.9%) traders respectively, followed by other occupations, although 6.3% of the respondents mothers were unemployed at the time of the study. Results of food consumption and snacking pattern showed that a total of 43.9% of the respondents opined that they eat 3 times in a day, while 3 1.2% noted that they eat twice a day, although the least were those who opined that they eat once a day. Fast food intake of the respondents showed that 90.9% rarely or do not eat the meals not cooked by the house, while 9.1% opined they eat it 1-3 times weekly. The study revealed that the lifestyle pattern of the adolescents (involvements in sporting activities) has the ability to influence their BMI.