The assessment of lifestyle on the BMI of Adolescents in Wakiso District.

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to assess how different lifestyles affect the BMI of adolescents, by finding out the adolescents’’ level of involvement in physical activity, nutritional habits and establish their Body Mass Index. Specifically to achieve the following objectives, a cross sectional research design was employed. A stratified random sampling followed by a simple random sampling technique was employed to select a total of 133 respondents; a total of 78 ales and 55 female respondents. Data was collected using questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS package. Findings indicated that 77.3% and 22.7% of respondents were found to participate in sports and not to participate in sports respectively. Of the number that engaged in sports, 49.1% were actively engaged for 30 to 60 minutes and 13.2% were actively engaged for 1 to 2 hours. Most of these adolescents (69.8%) were involved in active participation once a week and the least percentage (0.9%) were involved once a month. 79.7% of the adolescents participated in various activities with football being the highly engaged in physical activity with 45.1% whereas, 20.3% never participated in any activities. From the results, the males were more actively participatory than their female counterparts were. In line with nutritional habits, the results indicated that the adolescents consumed majorly carbohydrates and proteins (20% of dietary intake) and very less of the vitamins (3% of the dietary intake). Most adolescents (49.6%) also took a drink thrice a day. However, 55.6% of adolescents were found out to have a habit of usually skipping supper and 18.5% missing lunch thus totaling to 20.3% of total respondents skipping meals. The research also showed that 64% of the total number of respondents had a normal BMI, 31% were underweight, 5% were overweight while none of the respondents was obese. However, the males had a higher BMI than their female counterparts. Active participation of the adolescents in physical activities with poor nutritional habits characterized by snacking and skipping of meals accounted for the large percentage of adolescents found to be underweight. In addition the males were more positive and active than their female counterparts. The study concluded that, the prevalence of those underweight was more significant compared to those overweight, the females were found to be less active than their male counterparts in physical activity and poor nutritional habits characterized by low intake of fruits and vegetables, snacking and skipping of meals, accounted for the large percentage of adolescents found to be underweight. The following recommendations were proposed: a need for the adolescents to embrace healthy eating pattern as well as encouragement of the female adolescents to engage ore in physical activities, the different stakeholders ought to ensure maximum attention to the adolescents’ welfare and wellbeing.