摘要："Introduction: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are among the ris-ing trend and are often caused by modifiable risk factors. Adolescents are frequent victims due to junk food consumption and unhealthy diet leading to overweight and obe-sity. A nutritionally adequate and balanced diet is essential for opti-mal growth and development. Objectives: A cross-sectional study to assess the knowledge, attitude and dietary practices among the adolescents of urban slums. Also, to find the association of Body Mass Index (BMI) with frequency of junk foods consumption. Materials and methods: 230 ado-lescents aged 13-15 years in Benga-luru Urban slums were assessed using multi-stage random sampling technique and data was collected. Bowl-method was employed to quantify the measurements of foods consumed. Standard precautions were taken to measure height and weight. Chi-square test was used to find association between BMI and frequency of junk food consump-tion. Results: Mean age of the students was 14.02 (SD 0.96) and majority were in 8th standard (42.2%). 116 (50.4%) of them were boys. Mean BMI of the adolescents was 20.7kg/m2 (SD 3.6) where, 68 (29.6%) of them were underweight, 62 (27%) were overweight and 4 (1.7%) were obese. Only 39% had good knowledge, 71% had favoura-ble attitude and good practice in 31% of adolescents. There was sig-nificant association with frequency of junk food consumption and BMI variation. Conclusion: Adolescents had poor knowledge and practice. Over-weight was more prevalent among boys and Underweight in girls. There was significant association with frequency of junk food consumption and BMI variation.
