STUDY OF THE ANTHROPOMETRIC INDEXES IN INFANTS OF UP TO ONE YEAR IN SABZEVAR, IRAN IN COMPARISON WITH NCHS IN 2005

Background and

Monitoring infant's physical growth is one of the important methods of determining the nutritional status and well being. It can also play an important part in diagnosing developmental growth and malnutrition in the earlier stages of life. This study is therefore intended to investigate the anthropometric indexes of infants of up to one year old and to compare the results with NCHS. Methods and Materials: This is a descriptive analytical study conducted on the population of infants of up to one year old admitted to health clinics in Sabzevar, Iran in 2005. 873 infants were randomly, and in proportion to the number of infants under the care giving programs of each clinic, selected as the study sample. Under constant circumstances, weight, height and head perimeter were measured by kilogram, centimeter and centimeter respectively for all subjects. The study instruments included interview and observation checklists and the obtained data were analyzed in SPSS using descriptive figures and tables, chi Square and comparison of relations.

The subjects were found to be under the third NCHS percentile 10.5% by weight/age index, 6.5% by height/age index and 14% by head perimeter/age index, and the difference was statistically significant (p....