Investing in Adolescent Girls’ Nutrition in Bangladesh

Adolescents are among the age groups most vulnerable to malnutrition and their situation requires priority attention. However, information on adolescent nutrition in Bangladesh is limited. Using data from the Food Security and Nutrition Surveillance Project (FSNSP), we examined the nutritional situation of adolescent girls including regional and urban-rural patterns in undernutrition and overnutrition, dietary diversity, household food security, and as well as their growth dynamics. Our analysis focused on data collected from 2012 to 2014. The total sample size was 15,740 adolescent girls aged 10–19 years, of which one third were early adolescents aged 10–14 years, and one-tenth lived in urban areas. The authors found that among young adolescent girls, the proportion of moderate to severe thinness declined from 35…