WEIGHT AND HEIGHT ASSESSMENT IN SCHOOL GIRLS OF AGE 7 TO 10 YEARS IN SOUTHEAST PROVINCE OF IRAN

Abstract

The main aim of this project was the assessment, for the first time, anthropometrically, the nutritional status in school girls' population aging from 7 to 10 years in Ahwaz city and ultimately compare their growth rate with other findings obtained from different part of Iran and also with the proposed standards of NCHS in this respect. This study was conducted on 1200 apparently healthy school girls at the ages of 7, 8, 9 and 10 years chosen from 30 schools of Ahwaz city by two - stage cluster random sampling procedure. The mean ± I SD of 8.5 ± 1, 2 year, 24.5 ± 3.5 Kg and 128 ± 7.9 cm were calculated for age, weight and height respectively. The results clearly showed that weight and height were under the 5th percentile of the NCHS standards in 14.6 and 14 percent of the total investigated cases respectively. The deviation from the 5th percentile of the proposed NCHS standards was 17, 15.5, 17 and 9 percent for weight and 20, 12.6,12.6 and 11 percent for height observed at ages of 7, 8, 9 and 10 years ,respectively. Also the calculated average weight and height for age in this study were significantly lower than the NCHS standards (P<0.001 & p