Nutritional situation and risk factors in Mexican adolescent women

Background: There are scarce information about adolescent diet, for this, it is become necessary studies in this respect. The objetive was: to know the nutritional situation of Mexican adolescent women and to analyze the risk factors that condition it. Material and Methods: A transversal and analytic study was performed, in 511 adolescent women from 15 Mexican towns. Diet was studied with 24-hours dietary recall. Socioeconomic aspects by mean the Socioeconomic Level Index of Bronfman. Blood cholesterol level by the method of Liebermann-Burchard. Hemoglobine concentration by cianemethahemoglobin method and hematocrite by microhematocrite method. Body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHI) were determined. Results: Prevalence to anaemia was 26% and to hipercholesterolemia was 30.4%. 13% of adolescent women perform 1 or 2 meals by day and the 56% more than 4. 59% increased the consumed foods, comparing with their costumes during primary studies, and a 14% decrease them. Median value for zinc and cobalamine not arrive to 50% of recommended dietary allowances. Corporal weight and BMI were higher in adolescents with a previous history of obesity. As cholesterol level increase in blood, increase too the corporal weight, BMI and WHR. In the same way an increase in the Socioeconomic Level Index implies a higher intake of total energy, proteins, carbon hydrates and total fat. Conclusions: Sample selection and their size, permit us to apply our results on similar populations. Important relationships between adolescent nutrition and Socioeconomic Level Index, cholesterolemia or anthropometrics indexes were observed.