A Review on Nutritional Status of School-Going Girls Belonging to the Low-Income Group

Abstract

Background: Nutritional status during adolescence is an important determinant of physical growth, cognitive development, and future health. School-going girls from low-income families may be particularly vulnerable to undernutrition due to inadequate dietary intake, poor food quality, and socioeconomic constraints.
 Objectives: To review the nutritional status of school-going girls belonging to the low-income group and to identify selected factors associated with their nutritional status.
Methodology: This review article followed a structured literature search methodology to identify, evaluate, and synthesize existing research regarding the nutritional status, dietary habits, and associated socioeconomic factors among school-going adolescent girls. The search strategy utilized combinations of medical subject headings (MeSH) and text keywords using Boolean operators: ("nutritional status" OR "dietary habits" OR "body mass index" OR "BMI") AND ("school-going adolescent girls" OR "female adolescents") AND ("dietary patterns" OR "meal patterns" OR "socioeconomic factors").
Inclusion Criteria: Peer-reviewed original research articles, descriptive cross-sectional studies, and population-based surveys focusing on school-going female adolescents (aged 12–18 years); studies explicitly reporting anthropometric measurements (height, weight, BMI) and dietary assessments; articles published in English.
Exclusion Criteria: Case reports, editorials, conference abstracts lacking complete data, qualitative studies without quantitative nutritional or anthropometric metrics, and papers focusing exclusively on clinical patient populations or male cohorts.
Conclusion: The study revealed that a regular nutritional assessment, nutrition education, promotion of balanced diets, and strengthening of school-based nutritional programmes are recommended to improve the health and nutritional well-being of adolescent girls.