STUDY OF DIETARY HABIT, CALORIE INTAKE AND PROTEIN INTAKE AMONG ADOLESCENT BOYS IN ALIGARH.

Background: Human growth and maturation are continuous processes, and transition from childhood into adulthood is not abrupt, the period of adolescence encompasses rapid changes in physical changes and maturation, and in psychological development. Objective: To study the dietary habit, mean calorie intake and mean protein intake of last 24 hours in the study population. Materials and Methods: The present cross- sectional study was conducted in the field practice areas of Rural Health Training Centre, Jawan and Urban Health Training Centre, Aligarh, of the Department of Community Medicine, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Aligarh Muslim University. Results: Majority of students (91.6%) used to take meals three times a day and only 8.4% used to had meal twice a day, out of them most of them were from rural area. mean calorie and mean protein intake being less in whole age group of 10-19 years than the reference values given by ICMR 2010. Total mean calorie of 10-19 years age group was 1995.09 in urban and 2056.07 in rural area. Total mean protein intake of 10-19 years age group was 44.56 gm/day in urban and 41.44 gm/day in rural area. Conclusion: Overall 98.77% rural and 94.92% urban students were found to be deficit in calorie intake in 24 hours recall method and protein intake was deficit in 84.37% urban and 93.44% rural students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]