A Survey of Anthropometric Indices [Weight, Height, and Body Mass Index (BMI)] in Secondary School Girls of Zanjan 2004-2005

Normal growth is the most important indicator of child health and measurement of height and weight is the simplest and the most reliable means to its evaluation. Due to the significance of the issue, the present study was conducted with the aim of determining the anthropometric indices of secondary school girls of Zanjan in 2004-2005. This cross sectional study was carried out on 1010 students who had been selected through cluster random sampling from 10 schools. Height and weight were measured by standard method and body mass index (BMI) was calculated thereafter. The data were analysed using Excel and SPSS softwares and χ 2 and t-tests. The survey of 1010 secondary schools girls showed that the height and weight of research group were 10.5 and 7.3% lower than the 5th percentile of National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) respectively and also, 0.6% and 4.5% were higher than 95th percentile of NCHS respectively. However, the 5th percentile of BMI almost matched the 5th percentile of NCHS. Moreover, 21.7% of the short students were underweight and 3.8% were overweight which were statistically significant (P=0.0001). 13.5% of short stature students were from district 1 and 7.8% of them were from district 2, showing a significant difference (P=0.0003). The research results and other reports throughout the country demonstrate that the height and weight of adolescent population in the country are below standard NCHS although the differences are not significant. However, NCHS curves overestimate the prevalence of underweight and short stature whithin our community.