Exploring Gender Disparity in Nutritional Status and Dietary Intake of Adolescents in Uttarkashi

Abstract

Adolescence is considered to be a nutritionally vulnerable period of life. The current cross-sectional study attempts to assess gender-based differences in nutritional status and dietary intake of a sample of 240 adolescents from Uttarkashi district in the state of Uttarakhand. The data were collected across two schools (Kendriya Vidyalaya, Manera, and Alpine Public School) of Uttarkashi. The nutritional status of each subject was evaluated by using two anthropometric indices, that is, weight-for-age and height-for-age, and derived indices expressed as z-scores by using the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reference data. Dietary intake was ascertained by employing 24-h dietary intake for 3 consecutive days. The results show an increasing trend of mean height and weight of adolescent boys and girls with advancing age. Gender wise, however, boys had higher prevalence of underweight than girls, whereas girls were slightly more stunted compared to boys. The dietary intake of energy, iron, calcium and protein was significantly higher in boys than their female counterparts. Despite an advantage in terms of dietary intake, an enhanced prevalence of underweight among boys may be attributed to difference in physical activity between both sexes, owing to gendered cultural setting.