Investigation on height and weight of 8 year-old children from Kashan in 1993

Objective: Growth retardation in children is one of the most prominent signs of malnutrition. In order to know the malnourished child, one must continually measure the height and weight of the child and compare them with standard criteria. Then, if the child is proved to suffer from malnutrition, the professionals must think of proper ways of treatment. Methods: In March 1993, a cross-sectional study was conducted with random-cluster sampling on 8 year-old students in 54 schools, with a sample size of 1938 i.e. 902 girls and 1036 boys. Height and weight of children measured without shoes and with least clothing. Findings: The average of height of the girls (124.0±5.58 cm) has shown to be lower than of the boys (125.0±5.41 cm), and shown statistically significant by student’s T-test. The average of the weight of girls (23.5±3.66 kg) is lower than that in boys (23.9±3.27 kg) with a significant difference (P