A study of health status of adolescent girls and their health seeking behavior in a rural area of Kanpur

Background: Adolescent’s problems constitute a bulk of morbidities which are generally unrecognized and uncared for, furthering the disease burden. Worldwide about more than 1.2 billion are adolescents. Adolescent population in India is 240 million (21.4%).The study will help to know about various health problems and unmet needs of the study population so that we can recommend necessary actions required for betterment of the existing health infrastructure and Programmes for adolescent girls. Methodology: The present study was conducted in Shivrajpur block of district Kanpur Nagar (U.P.). Study design: Community-based cross-sectional study. Sample size: Has been calculated using the formula 4pq/l2 where prevalence (P) of usage of sanitary napkins in adolescent girls was 25.1%. Sampling technique: Two stage random sampling has been used. Exclusion criteria: Those Adolescent girls who were unwilling/ not ready to interact and had not achieved their menarche were excluded from study. Results: Show that most of the subjects 154 (44.0%) belong to 14-16 year age group and 121(34.6%) are in 17-19 year age group. Out of total 350 subject 332 (94.9%) were unmarried and 18 (5.1%) were married. Most of the study subjects 228(65.1%) belonged to Lower middle class (IV). 35.1% (30.6-40.3%) were underweight, 6.6% (4.0%-9.1%) were overweight and remaining 1.7% (.6-3.1%) were obese. 28.6% with 95% CI (24.0-33.1%) had mild pallor, 18.6% (14.6-22.9%) had moderate and remaining 9.7% (6.6- 12.9%) had severe pallor.Most of the study subjects 250 (71.4%) did not have any RTI/STI symptoms, 20 (5.7%). Majority 339(96.9%) of the study subjects had no obstetric history, 3(.85%) had history of abortion, 2(.57%) still birth. About 127(36.3%) preferred allopathic treatment, 103 (29.4%) preferred home remedy and 120 (34.3%) did not take any treatment. Conclusion: Prevalence of RTI/STI symptoms was 28.57%. 35.1% (30.6-40.3%) subjects were underweight and 56.85% were found anemic. Keywords: Adol