The Assessment of Anthropometric Measurements of the Students Attending Fatih Sultan Mehmet Primary School

BACKGROUND: We aimed to evaluate the anthropometric measurements and nutrition and physical activity habits of the students attending Fatih Sultan Mehmet Primary School in the district of Meram, Konya. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was carried out among 368 children attending Fatih Sultan Mehmet Primary School. RESULTS: The students were in 11-14 age groups and were attending to 5th-8th grades. The students were classified according to height, weight and waist circumference (WC) based on an age and sex-specific percentile curves. Of all 368 students, 174 (47.3%) were male, 194 (52.7%) female, the number of sibling was 2. There was no milk consumption habit among 222 students (60.3%). 52.7% (n=210) reported that they had made sportive activity 2-7 hours a week. The frequency of watching TV was 2 hours and under daily among 210 students (57.1%). Among the girls, the highest rate of the overweight was found as 7.7% and the highest rate of the obesity was found as 1.9% among 14 years olds. We found that waist circumference (WC) increased with age both in boys and girls. The increase of the WC was greater in boys than the girls in 11 age group (p=0.020). BMI was statistically greater in girls than boys in 13 and 14 age groups (p=0.009, p=0.027, respectively). Malnutrition was found at the highest level as 17.1% in boys at the age of 13 and as 17.9% in girls at the age of 13. CONCLUSION: In this study, the frequency of malnutrition was found higher than obesity. It was necessary that nutrition and the regulations of the habits should be taken into account during the school health programs. [TAF Prev Med Bull. 2008; 7(3): 205-212]