Adolescent Nutrition and Counseling
Adolescent nutrition is crucial for proper growth and development and a prerequisite for achieving full developmental potential. Suboptimal nutrition may contribute to delayed and stunted growth as well as impaired development. As adolescents undergo a period of rapid growth and development, adequate nutrient intake (of both macro and micronutrients) is critical.
Many of the risk factors that impact maternal and newborn health exist right from adolescence, including nutritional deficiencies. Prepregnancy wasting in adolescents is usually reflected as low body mass index (BMI < 18.5). Low BMI significantly increases perinatal risks including stillbirths, preterm births, small for gestational age, and low birth weight (LBW) babies.
Iron deficiency anemia is among the top 10 causes of disability-adjusted life years lost among adolescents . Concern is especially warranted for adolescent girls because their iron requirements are relatively high (due to growth spurts, sexual maturation, and menstrual losses) and because they may be on the cusp of motherhood. While most programs are targeted at pregnant women, the depletion of iron stores in women starts during adolescence with the onset of menstruation.
More recently, there has been a growing interest in adolescent girls’ nutrition as a means to improve the health of women and children. Each year around 16 million babies are born to adolescent girls between the ages of 15 and 19 years, accounting for over 10% of the total births each year .
Pregnancy in adolescence is associated with greater risk to the mother and newborn—including anemia, mortality, stillbirths, and prematurity—especially since the adolescent girls are not physically mature themselves.
Adolescent girls are two to five times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than women aged 20–29 years. Girls younger than 19 years have a 50% increased risk of stillbirths and neonatal deaths, as well as an increased risk for preterm birth, LBW, and asphyxia. These health risks further increase for girls who become pregnant earlier than 15 years and are somewhat reduced for older adolescents aged 18–19 years.