BODY FAT COMPOSITION AND ITS DETERMINANTS AMONG ADOLESCENT STUDENTS IN THE BEREKUM MUNICIPALITY

Abstract

Complementing Body Mass Index (BMI) with Bio impedance Analysis (BIA) provides a comprehensive description of the distribution of body fats, posing clinical and research benefits. Due to increasing levels of overweight and obesity among the adolescent population especially in growing urban settlements, an analytical cross-sectional study design was conducted in the Berekum municipality which is among the fastest growing urbanizations in the Bono region among 424 adolescent students to measure body fat composition and its determinants. The data was captured with a structured questionnaire and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software. Four hundred and nine questionnaires were completed and included in the data analysis (409) out of 424 questionnaires administered. More than half (54.3%) of the study participants were aged between 13 and 16 years (mean ± SD = 13.88 ± 2.18), females (53.3%) and went to government schools (51.3%). Generally, most adolescents had normal weight (66%), 13% were thin and about 21% were either overweight or obese. Twenty percent of the adolescents had low general body fat whiles 52% were normal and 28% had high/very high BF. Per their muscle fat, 71.4% measured very high, 6.4% were low and 22.2% were normal. Almost half (46.2%) of the respondents practiced ‘health-enhancing physical activity’ (HEPA) whiles 44.7% were moderately active, but 9.1% were physically inactive. The average dietary diversity score for respondents was found to be 6.40±1.79. Also, it was found that 65.8% had high dietary diversity, 31.3% with moderate dietary diversity and 2.9% reported low dietary diversity. Compared with females, male adolescents had 2.5 odds of having high body fat [OR=2.5; CI (1.3-5.1); p=0.007]. Schooling in urban locations had 4 odds of presenting high body fat than rural schoolers [OR=4.2; CI (2.1-8.5); p<0.001]. Students whose mothers were civil servants significantly had 11.3 odds and those whose mothers were traders had 5.3 of having high body fat compared to their counterparts whose mothers were into farming and other occupations [OR=11.3, p=0.017 & OR= 5.3, 0.011]. Yearly nutrition surveillance is recommended for the school age adolescent group to understand their nutritional situation to guide nutrition policies for the age group