Heights And Weights Of Primary School Children Of Different Social Background In Ankara, Turkey

Abstract

A cross-sectional anthropometric survey was carried out in a low socio-economic and high socioeconomic region of Ankara, Turkey, to measure the weights and heights of school children, The study group consisted of 5289 children between the ages of 5 and 11 years, Both boys and girls from the high socio-economic group had superior body measurements compared to those of the low socio-economic group, The difference between the mean weight for age values of two groups was statistically significant (P < 0.05), whereas no statistically significant difference was found on the basis of height for age values among all age groups, To make a comparison both with National Centre for Health Statistics and World Health Organisation (NCHS-WHO) standards and Turkish standards we used the data from high socio-economic group only, Our results showed that the mean height and weight values of boys and girls were higher than the 50th centile height and weight values of NCHS-WHO standards, Almost 25 years have passed since the measurements of Turkish standards were taken, The height differences were in the range of 0.24-1.51 cm/decade, with a mean value of 0.96 cm/decade, These results led us to conclude that, local/regional standards for height and weight are needed, and repeated assessments are useful for follow-up of populations.