With the current nutrition transition occurring in low-to-middle-income countries (LMICs), incidences of both overweight/obesity and underweight/stunting are increasingly observed within the same population. This is an important phenomenon with regards to adolescent health, as poor nutritional status among adolescents may contribute towards susceptibility to both communicable and non-communicable diseases in adulthood. Research has shown that nutritional status can be affected by socioeconomic status (SES). The objective of this study was to conduct a comparative analysis of the anthropometric status of adolescents from two secondary schools in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa that differ according to the SES of the learners. The study was cross-sectional and descriptive; and was carried out in an urban and a peri-urban high school in Hilton, KwaZulu-Natal. Grade nine to 11 learners (n=111) aged 14 to 21 years from the peri-urban high school and the urban high school (n=98) aged 14 to 17 years, volunteered to participate (N= 209). Anthropometric measurements including weight, height and mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC) were measured and body mass index (BMI) was calculated. Results showed a higher incidence of overweight (> +1SD - 25kg/m2) and obesity (>+2SD - BMI 30 kg/m2) among urban school boys compared to peri-urban school boys (p<0.01) and among peri-urban school girls compared to urban school girls (p<0.01) across all grades. A higher prevalence of stunting (<-2SD and >-3SD) was observed among peri-urban school boys (p<0.01) compared to their urban school counterparts. Albeit a small sample size, results from this study indicates that SES and gender may play a determinant role in overweight, obesity and stunting prevalence, as boys in urban areas and girls in peri-urban areas may be at a higher risk of overweight/obesity, whereas peri-urban boys may be at a higher risk of stunting. It can also be concluded that a double burden of stunting and overweight/obesity may exist among adolescents from peri-urban areas, who were considered to be of low SES.
| Published in | Central African Journal of Public Health (Volume 1, Issue 2) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.cajph.20150102.12 |
| Page(s) | 21-27 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2015. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Stunting, Obesity, Adolescents, Socioeconomic Status
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APA Style
Keiron A. Audain, Frederick J. Veldman, Susanna M. Kassier. (2015). A Comparative Analysis of Nutritional Status in Adolescents from an Urban Versus a Peri-urban School in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. Central African Journal of Public Health, 1(2), 21-27. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cajph.20150102.12
ACS Style
Keiron A. Audain; Frederick J. Veldman; Susanna M. Kassier. A Comparative Analysis of Nutritional Status in Adolescents from an Urban Versus a Peri-urban School in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. Cent. Afr. J. Public Health 2015, 1(2), 21-27. doi: 10.11648/j.cajph.20150102.12
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Download@article{10.11648/j.cajph.20150102.12,
author = {Keiron A. Audain and Frederick J. Veldman and Susanna M. Kassier},
title = {A Comparative Analysis of Nutritional Status in Adolescents from an Urban Versus a Peri-urban School in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa},
journal = {Central African Journal of Public Health},
volume = {1},
number = {2},
pages = {21-27},
doi = {10.11648/j.cajph.20150102.12},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cajph.20150102.12},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.cajph.20150102.12},
abstract = {With the current nutrition transition occurring in low-to-middle-income countries (LMICs), incidences of both overweight/obesity and underweight/stunting are increasingly observed within the same population. This is an important phenomenon with regards to adolescent health, as poor nutritional status among adolescents may contribute towards susceptibility to both communicable and non-communicable diseases in adulthood. Research has shown that nutritional status can be affected by socioeconomic status (SES). The objective of this study was to conduct a comparative analysis of the anthropometric status of adolescents from two secondary schools in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa that differ according to the SES of the learners. The study was cross-sectional and descriptive; and was carried out in an urban and a peri-urban high school in Hilton, KwaZulu-Natal. Grade nine to 11 learners (n=111) aged 14 to 21 years from the peri-urban high school and the urban high school (n=98) aged 14 to 17 years, volunteered to participate (N= 209). Anthropometric measurements including weight, height and mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC) were measured and body mass index (BMI) was calculated. Results showed a higher incidence of overweight (> +1SD - 25kg/m2) and obesity (>+2SD - BMI 30 kg/m2) among urban school boys compared to peri-urban school boys (p-3SD) was observed among peri-urban school boys (p<0.01) compared to their urban school counterparts. Albeit a small sample size, results from this study indicates that SES and gender may play a determinant role in overweight, obesity and stunting prevalence, as boys in urban areas and girls in peri-urban areas may be at a higher risk of overweight/obesity, whereas peri-urban boys may be at a higher risk of stunting. It can also be concluded that a double burden of stunting and overweight/obesity may exist among adolescents from peri-urban areas, who were considered to be of low SES.},
year = {2015}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - A Comparative Analysis of Nutritional Status in Adolescents from an Urban Versus a Peri-urban School in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa AU - Keiron A. Audain AU - Frederick J. Veldman AU - Susanna M. Kassier Y1 - 2015/07/25 PY - 2015 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cajph.20150102.12 DO - 10.11648/j.cajph.20150102.12 T2 - Central African Journal of Public Health JF - Central African Journal of Public Health JO - Central African Journal of Public Health SP - 21 EP - 27 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2575-5781 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cajph.20150102.12 AB - With the current nutrition transition occurring in low-to-middle-income countries (LMICs), incidences of both overweight/obesity and underweight/stunting are increasingly observed within the same population. This is an important phenomenon with regards to adolescent health, as poor nutritional status among adolescents may contribute towards susceptibility to both communicable and non-communicable diseases in adulthood. Research has shown that nutritional status can be affected by socioeconomic status (SES). The objective of this study was to conduct a comparative analysis of the anthropometric status of adolescents from two secondary schools in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa that differ according to the SES of the learners. The study was cross-sectional and descriptive; and was carried out in an urban and a peri-urban high school in Hilton, KwaZulu-Natal. Grade nine to 11 learners (n=111) aged 14 to 21 years from the peri-urban high school and the urban high school (n=98) aged 14 to 17 years, volunteered to participate (N= 209). Anthropometric measurements including weight, height and mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC) were measured and body mass index (BMI) was calculated. Results showed a higher incidence of overweight (> +1SD - 25kg/m2) and obesity (>+2SD - BMI 30 kg/m2) among urban school boys compared to peri-urban school boys (p-3SD) was observed among peri-urban school boys (p<0.01) compared to their urban school counterparts. Albeit a small sample size, results from this study indicates that SES and gender may play a determinant role in overweight, obesity and stunting prevalence, as boys in urban areas and girls in peri-urban areas may be at a higher risk of overweight/obesity, whereas peri-urban boys may be at a higher risk of stunting. It can also be concluded that a double burden of stunting and overweight/obesity may exist among adolescents from peri-urban areas, who were considered to be of low SES. VL - 1 IS - 2 ER -
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