title: Kuwait nutritional survey: comparison of the nutritional status of Kuwaiti children aged 6-9 years with the NCHS/CDC reference population.
abstract: A national cross-sectional survey of the heights and weights of Kuwaiti primary school children aged 6-9 years was conducted on a stratified multistage sample of 5132 subjects from two socio-economic districts. The collected data were used to compare the nutritional status of Kuwaiti children with their American counterparts using the NCHS/CDC reference population. The basic indices used for comparison were height for age and weight for height, each considered in terms of centiles and SD scores and cross-classified using SD scores. The results indicated that although Kuwaiti children in the studied age groups are shorter than American children severe short stature is relatively infrequent as 48.3% fell below the 30th centile of the reference population. Conversely, Kuwaiti children are relatively heavier than American children as 61.1% fell above the 50th centile of the reference population.
mesh_terms: D001827:Body Height; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007730:Kuwait; D008297:Male; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D012016:Reference Values; D014481:United States