title: Eating attitudes and its relationship with nutritional status: a micro level study on a group of adolescent girls in the city of Howrah, West Bengal.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To assess the relationship between eating attitudes and nutritional status.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional study was conducted among 400 adolescent girls (258 aged 14-17 years and 142 aged 18-21 years) from the city of Howrah, West Bengal. Eating attitude was measured using eating distress syndrome (EDS) questionnaire. Nutritional status was assessed using body mass index, waist-hip ratio (WHR) and body fat percentage (BF%).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participants with disordered eating attitudes revealed significantly higher values for body mass index (BMI), WHR and BF% than those with normal eating attitudes (p≤0.01). Hierarchical linear regression analyses show that eating attitudes and socio-demographic characteristics (like mothers' education and occupation, age and birth order of the participants) significantly predict nutritional status.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The nutritional status of adolescents depends on their eating attitudes and socio-demographic characteristics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India.
authors.forename: Nadira
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mallick
authors.affiliation: Biological Anthropology Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, 203 B.T. Road, Kolkata 700 108, India, Phone: 09051159413, E-mail:susmi.mukho@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Susmita
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mukhopadhyay
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India.
authors.forename: Subha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ray
keywords: Howrah; West Bengal; adolescent girls; eating attitude; nutritional status