IMAPCTS OF COVID-19 ON NUTRITIONAL STATUS AND HEALTH ISSUES OF ADOLESCENT (10-19) IN CHATTOGRAM, BANGLADESH

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage mental health, nutritional status of the adolescent and economic metrics globally. This study aims to explore the impact of COVID-19 on the nutritional status and mental health condition of the adolescent. An online based cross-sectional study was conducted from 5 th October to 28th December among 250 respondents, comprising 165 boys and 85 girls were participated in this study. A pre-prepaid questionnaire was used to find out the association among various factors with nutritional status. Mental health condition was assessed by the DASS-21 measure and dietary diversity was calculated based on 24 hour recall of adolescence consumption of 12 food groups within the past 24 hour. In this study, 34.8% adolescence were underweight, 54.8% normal, 8.4% overweight and 2% obese in case of using World Health Organization (WHO) BMI classification. Mother’s education, household monthly income and present status of monthly income were significantly associated with nutritional status of the adolescent. The present study also showed that the mental condition of adolescent. The higher prevalence of stress symptoms, depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms were 23.2% in mild, 22.4% and 13.6% in moderate respectively. This study showed that, stress symptoms and depressive symptoms were significantly associated with nutritional status of the adolescence. No significance difference (p>0.05) was observed between BMI and dietary diversity. This study demonstrated that, improvement of house-hold financial conditions, literacy of parents, and job security may help in improving nutritional status and mental health condition of adolescence boys and girls.