Adolescent Girls: Nutrition and Health Status in Indian perspective

The Latin term adolescere, which means "grow up" or "to grow into maturity," is the source of the English word adolescence, which dates back to the 15th century. Adolescent is the time for physical, psychological, and cognitive development. However, the health of adolescent girls differs from that of men due to biological, social interactions, and financial disparities, and while a woman's life span is longer than a man's, women suffer greater mortality across their entire lives. The various forms of discrimination against adolescent girls in society have an impact on their overall health status. Surprisingly, the prevalence of both undernutrition and overnutrition is noted among adolescent girls. It could be attributed to economic position, a lack of nutrition and health awareness, or an insufficient understanding of food habits and knowledge on nutrients requirement. Anaemia is more common in adolescent girls because to low socioeconomic level, lack of dietary awareness, lack of nutritional supplementation, poor individual hygiene, infections, and a prolonged menstrual cycle. Prevalence of hypertension is also being increasing in overweight adolescent girls due to the unhealthy food intake and sedentary lifestyle. Prevalence of dyslipidaemia is less in adolescents but, if present, is likely to elevate the possibility of CVD events subsequently in their life and may cause early mortality.