Effect of Dietary Diversity and Dietary Behaviors on Nutritional Status of Selected Young Women from Dhaka City, Bangladesh

Aims: A balanced diet includes a variety of foods from different food groups that are essential for healthy growth and development. The primary goal of this paper was to assess the outcome of dietary diversity and its related factors on nutritional status among young girls in Dhaka city.

Study Design: The study was a cross-sectional study.

Methodology: The total number of 100 young girls aged 18 to 25 from four selected areas of Dhaka city were interviewed by a structured questionnaire on dietary diversity, dietary behavior, socio-demographic status and different anthropometric assessment were done using standard technique.

Results: Our study revealed that more than half (55%) of the participants had normal nutritional status, and 12% of the young women were under-weight. The prevalence of overweight and obese were respectively 26% and 7%. The study exhibited a significant correlation between nutritional status with different dietary habits and various food groups. 45% of the study participants had an acceptable dietary diversity score and there was no significant association between dietary diversity score and BMI of young girls.

Conclusion: The nutritional status of the study participants depicted a portrait of the double burden of malnutrition, and the overall nutritional status is shifting more towards overweight and obesity. It also indicates that the dietary diversity score of the selected young girls of Dhaka city is satisfactory, although their knowledge about dietary behavior needs to be improved.