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Analysis of healthy lifestyle among girl-children in the notheren Nigeria

Adetayo Olaniyi Adeniran*,Taye Mohammed Abdullahi, Oluwadamisi Tayo-Ladega

Studies have revealed that there are numerous springing forth in the northern part of Nigeria, which inflicts the girl-children. This cross-sectional study was conducted to analyze healthy lifestyles among girl-children in the northern part of Nigeria. A total of 347 participants (parents of 347 girl-children) participated in this study, and the primary data was gathered from the period of 2nd July to 8th July 2021 in Minna, Niger State. The majority of participants were in the categories of 15-18 years constituting 62.54%, 55.33% of the participants were underweight which may be as a consequence of short of balanced diet, short of access to food, poor feeding in infant, 35.45% of the participants were average weight and 9.22% were overweight. From the analysis, it was revealed that there is a connection between parents education and physical activities of girlchildren (p=0.001<0.05). Also, there is a connection between parent’s education and the eating habit of girl-children (p=0.027<0.05) in Minna, Nigeria. Literate parents have proper knowledge and observance of recommendations on balanced diet, healthy eating habits and physical activity, while illiterate parents are not exposed to health education programs. Finally, the study found that a greater number of girl-children do not cultivate the healthy living because of parent influence and the education level of children. Hence, it is recommended that the public and private stakeholders should engineer, educate, and enforce health training programmes for all parents in the northern part of Nigeria, especially Minna, Niger State which is the study area. Health education subjects should be included in the education curriculum from the primary to the secondary level.