Prevalence and Determinants of Malnutrition Among Adolescents in Delhi: A Rural-Urban Comparison Study

Background Adolescence represents the period of transition from puberty to adulthood, encompassing development in the physical, cognitive, and psychosocial domains. Thus, this is a period of rapid growth, which is only second to that of infancy. Since the dietary patterns in this age group are influenced by many factors, adolescents have a higher tendency to remain malnourished. Aim and objective To find out the prevalence of and the socio-demographic factors associated with malnutrition among adolescents in a rural and an urban community of Delhi. Materials and methods This community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in rural and urban field practice areas under the aegis of the Department of Community Medicine, Maulana Azad Medical College, for the duration of one year. All eligible adolescents (10-19 years) residing in both study areas were included as the sampling frame. A total of 420 participants were enrolled in the study using the simple random sampling technique. All interviews were conducted face-to-face by the investigator to collect data on the nutritional status and socio-demographic variables of the study participants. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 26.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). Results The mean age of the participants in our study was found to be 15.65 ± 2.10 years. About 63% of males and 37% of females participated in the study. Participants from urban areas had a better socio-economic status, as 67.1% of participants were either in Class II or Class III of the modified BG Prasad Scale, vis-à-vis 36.6% of participants from rural areas. The overall prevalence of malnutrition was found to be 46% with overnutrition being more rampant than undernutrition. Conclusion The overall prevalence of malnutrition was 46% in the present study, out of which 18% were undernourished while 28% were over-nourished. The prevalence of undernutrition was approximately three times more in rural areas as compared to urban areas while the prevalence of obesity/overweight was more rampant in urban areas in comparison to rural areas.