title: Heights and weights of primary school children of different social background in Ankara, Turkey.
abstract: A cross-sectional anthropometric survey was carried out in a low socio-economic and high socio-economic region of Ankara, Turkey, to measure the weights and heights of school children. The study group consisted of 5289 children between the ages of 5 and 11 years. Both boys and girls from the high socio-economic group had superior body measurements compared to those of the low socio-economic group. The difference between the mean weight for age values of two groups was statistically significant (P < 0.05), whereas no statistically significant difference was found on the basis of height for age values among all age groups. To make a comparison both with National Centre for Health Statistics and World Health Organisation (NCHS-WHO) standards and Turkish standards we used the data from high socio-economic group only. Our results showed that the mean height and weight values of boys and girls were higher than the 50th centile height and weight values of NCHS-WHO standards. Almost 25 years have passed since the measurements of Turkish standards were taken. The height differences were in the range of 0.24-1.51 cm/decade, with a mean value of 0.96 cm/ decade. These results led us to conclude that, local/regional standards for height and weight are needed, and repeated assessments are useful for follow-up of populations.
authors.affiliation: Ministry of Health Ankara State Hospital Department of Paediatrics, Altindag, Turkey.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nebigil
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hizel
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tanyer
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Dallar
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Coskun
mesh_terms: D000886:Anthropometry; D001827:Body Height; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012015:Reference Standards; D012923:Social Class; D014421:Turkey