Food Habits of Adolescent Girls and their Nutritional Status in Select Areas of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

Abstract

This paper is based on the Pilot Study conducted by the Research Scholar in the four areas ─ Devangapet, Gandhi Park, Periyar Nagar and Venkatiapuram that comes under the jurisdiction of 11th Project of ICDS at Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. The paper presents the details of analysis of data collected by administering Interview Schedule to 110 adolescent girls who come to the ICDS Center for periodical meetings. This paper deals with 15 aspects related to Personal Profile of the Respondents, their food habits ─ snacks intake pattern, Breakfast Intake Pattern, Lunch Intake Pattern and examines the Nutrition Awareness of Respondents in respect to Recommended Dietary Allowance by WHO standards, Assessment of Nutritional Awareness Status and the Reasons for Skipping Breakfast. The study employed application of descriptive statistics such as Mean, Standard Deviation, Correlation, and Factor Analysis. The paper begins with describing the Need and Importance of the Study, Objectives of the Study followed by portrayal of major analysis of data and reports the major findings of the study.