Authors: Mekone Nkwele Isabelle, Naiza Monono, Achelengwa Ashely Sefor, Meguieze Claude Audrey, Kamo Hélène Selangai, Epee Ngoué Jeannette, Mah Mungyeh Evelyn.
Background: Adolescence, a critical stage where many physiological and developmental changes occur in the body. Poor dietary habits and inadequate physical activity leads to poor nutritional status. This study aimed to explore the correlation between dietary habits, physical activity, and nutritional status among adolescents schooling in Yaoundé.
Methodology: A cross sectional descriptive and analytical study with adolescents aged 10 to 19 years was carried out. The 8 health districts of Yaoundé were used, and 2 schools were randomly selected per health district and for each school we randomly selected students using research randomiser 4.0. A well-structured questionnaire was used for data collection and anthropometric measurements registered. The data was analysed using SPSS PASW (version 18). Multivariate logistic regression analysis was done to determine the association with odds ratio, with CI at 95% and p value ?0.05.
Results: Out of 1118 adolescents, females were 60.4% with a sex ratio of 0.66 and average age of 14.81+/-2.63. Prevalence of malnutrition was 3.8% for underweight, 14.8% for overweight and 7.0% for obesity. Associated factors to overweight/obesity were the feminine gender (OR = 1.75 [1.22-2.51]), snacking on chocolates (OR = 1.51 [1.08-2.10]) and eating at least four groups of food a day (OR = 2.51 [1.42-4.45]). Protective factors were snacking on biscuits (OR = 0.67 [0.47-0.93]), and a moderate to vigorous physical activity at least thrice a week (OR = 0.60 [0.43-0.87]).
Conclusion: Overweight/obesity is significantly high among adolescents aged 10 to 19years schooling in Yaounde with identified factors: female gender, nibbling on chocolate and eating at least 4 different food groups in 24 hours. Whereas vigorous physical activity at least thrice a week was a protective factor.