Assessing the nutritional status of Palestinian adolescents from East Jerusalem: a school-based study 2002-03

In Palestine, there is a little information about nutrition of adolescents compared to other age groups. This study was designed to assess the nutritional status of Palestinian school-aged children (11-16 years) in East Jerusalem during 2002-03. A school-based cross-sectional study targeted randomly 313 adolescents from public and private schools. A previously validated and reliable questionnaire was administered through interviews that included anthropometric and hemoglobin measurements, 24-h dietary intake recall and physical activity questionnaire. It was found that being overweight (24.3%) or obese (9.9%) coexisted with being underweight (4.8%) and/or anemic (23.3%). Only 22.4% of the study subject had physical activity for ≥5 days a week with boys being more physically active than girls (p < 0.01). Inadequate energy intake had 55.66% of boys and 64.81% of girls; inadequate protein intake was reported by 15.07% of boys and 43.08% of girls. The majority of them met <80% of the recommended daily allowances for most micronutrients. The whole sample and especially boys consumed more total, saturated fat, less monounsaturated fat and carbohydrates than what is advised. Obese and overweight adolescents had lower energy intake (p < 0.05) and a lower trend in being physically active than normal weight counterparts. School health education programs targeted at adolescents and parents need to be developed as part of overweight-obesity, malnutrition and anemia prevention.