Alarming nutrition problems among adolescent students attending islamic boarding school in Indonesia

Abstract

Objective

This study aimed to assess nutrition status, nutrition knowledge, attitude, and practice of students residing in an Islamic boarding school in Indonesia.

Methods

Weight and height measurements were undertaken among 199 students. Self-administered questionnaires consisted of socio-demographic questions, as well as pre-tested questions concerning knowledge, attitude, and practice relevant to the Indonesian Dietary Guideline (balanced nutrition) were distributed. Descriptive analyses were undertaken to observe distributions of proportion of each nutritional status category by other measured variables.

Results

There were 24% underweight and 5% overweight students, with proportion of boys was greater than girls. The prevalence of stunting was 24% with more than half were boys. 12 out of 48 underweight students were stunted and one girl was stunted-and-overweight. 99% of students had insufficient knowledge regarding balanced nutrition, 21.6% had unfavourable attitude towards balanced nutrition, and 67% had less implemented practices of balanced nutrition.

Conclusions

Stunting, underweight, and problems in nutrition knowledge and practice, were quite high among adolescent students in this particular setting. Improvement of nutrition for this particular group of adolescent should be addressed through specific school-based nutrition education and intervention.