Publication:

A study of anthropometric parameters of school children: a cross sectional study in Rajasthan

Background The ongoing research in the school health domain is necessary to understand the secular trends in anthropometric parameters. Our study is an attempt to analyze the cross sectional findings and comparison with national reference studies to draw a conclusion on changing attributes of anthropometric parameters with time.

Methods The present study was adapted as a school based, cross sectional, observational epidemiological study design. We have analyzed the data generated out of assessment of height and weight (anthropometric analysis) along with other evaluation as a part of comprehensive health examination.

Results We evaluated, a total of 995 students, aged 5-16 years of which, 569 (57.2%) were boys and 426 (42.8%) were girls. BMI percentiles were calculated for both schoolboys and schoolgirls. Comparisons of the present height and weight curves with earlier data from India and multi country data from WHO was done. In this study prevalence of overweight was 10.35% which indicates the rising trends of childhood overweight and obesity.

Conclusions The trends of changing anthropometric measurements as evident in our study indicate the schoolchildren are growing taller and heavier. With increase in BMI, the prevalence of childhood overweight is on high level but level of underweight and under nutrition per say is low, probably due to quality food availability and increased buying capacity of families.