Content area
Full Text
RESEARCH
Adolescence is a time of dramatic change in the life of every person. The relatively uniform growth of childhood is suddenly altered by an increase in the velocity of growth. This sudden spurt is also associated with hormonal, cognitive, and emotional changes. All of these changes create special nutrition needs. Adolescence is considered an especially nutritional.ly vulnerable period of life for several reasons. First is the greater demand for nutrients because of the dramatic increase in physical growth and development. Second is the change of lifestyle and food habits of adolescents that affect both nutrient intake and needs. Third are those adolescents with special nutrient needs such as those who participate in sports, have a chronic illness, diet excessively, or those who use alcohol and drugs.
ADOLESCENT GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT
Physiologic Growth
The process of physically developing from a child to an adult is called puberty. The slow growth of late childhood begins to accelerate with pubescence until the rate is as rapid as that of early infancy. Stature growth continues at an even pace until the growth spurt. Before puberty, children grow approximately 2 to 3 inches a year and gain around 5 lbs a year. Adolescence is the only time in life besides birth when the velocity of growth actually increases. Enormous variability exists in the timing of this change called the growth spurt. In fact, adolescents of a given chronological age may vary widely in physiological development. Because of this variability among individuals, age is a poor indicator of physiological maturity and nutrition needs (1).
An assessment of the degree of maturation of secondary sexual characteristics is useful not only in evaluating physical growth but also in detecting certain diseases and disorders associated with adolescence. Sexual maturity ratings, often called Tanner stages, are widely used to evaluate growth and developmental age during adolescence. These stages of growth correlate highly with other pubertal events (2,3).
Tanner Stages Tanner stage ratings are based on development of secondary sex characteristics and are assigned on a scale of 1 (prepubertal) to 5 (adult). For boys, this scale is based on the progression of genital and pubic hair development; for girls, it is based on the development of breast and pubic hair. Figure 1 gives a...