Assessment of Nutritional Status, Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Secondary School Students in Kano, Nigeria

Abstract

Poor nutritional status during adolescence is an important determinant of health outcome and sustainable development. Roughly 19.7% of the world’s adolescents reside in Africa. Nigeria has about 21% of its population as adolescents. Adequate nutrition knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) among adolescents are necessary for improved nutrition status. However, there is limited data on nutrition KAP among adolescents to inform decision-making in the Northern Nigeria. The study assessed the nutritional status, knowledge, attitude and practices of secondary school girls in Kano, Nigeria. Descriptive research design was used for data collection, 137 students 10-22 years were randomly selected for the study. Data was collected using modified KAP questionnaire developed by the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nation (FAO-UN). Height, weight was measured and used for the calculation of Body Mass Index (BMI). Data were analyzed using SPSS-20. Correlation analysis was used to assess relationship between Nutritional knowledge, attitude and practices. P value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results obtained indicated that majority of the participants (55.42%) were underweight, 43.06% normal, 0.79% overweight and 0.73% obesed. Nutritional Knowledge was found to be 62.77% good, 21.39% fair and 15.84% poor. Nutritional attitude and practice were found to be 16.06% good, 50.36% fair, 33.58% poor, and 1.46% good, 15.33% fair, and 83.21 poor respectively. Correlation between knowledge and attitude, knowledge and practice, as well as practice and attitude were 0.338 (p=0.001), 0.058 (p= 0.504) and 0.235 (p= 0.006) and respectively. Therefore, the study reveals poor nutritional status, adequate knowledge and no significant correlation was found between knowledge and practice.