Assessment of the Relationship between Nutritional Knowledge and Anthropometric Indices in Isfahan Children and Adolescent

Anthropometric indices are one of the ways to assess physical growth and nutritional status of children and adolescents considering the importance of nutrition in children and the role of healthy nutrition in preventing diabetes, obesity and other chronic diseases, the objective of this study is determine the relationship between nutritional knowledge and anthropometric indices in children and adolescents in Isfahan.

This survey conducted using multistage cluster sampling on 1776 students aged 15–7 years old in Esfahan province in 2015. Nutritional knowledge was measured by questionnaire and height, weight, and body mass index (BMI) were measured as anthropometric index. Pearson and Spearman coeffi cients, regression, and T Independent were used to analyze the data; regression analysis was used to adjust the variables.

The mean age of students were 12.6 ± 1.9 years. About 50.3% of students were male, and most of them were studying in 5th grade of elementary school (23.8%). Most of them had normal status in terms of BMI (60.6%) and height (77.8%). There was no signifi cant relationship between the level of BMI and height of children and adolescents, and the total score of nutritional knowledge and its domains (P > 0.05), direct and signifi cant relationship was found between nutritional knowledge in two domains of meals and food habits and age.

As no relationship between nutritional knowledge and anthropometric index in our study, other factors are effective in this regard, and studies are required to be conducted to examine the nutritional attitude and performance, in addition to knowledge.