A First Longitudinal Growth Study of Stature and Weight of the School Children From Jessore District in Bangladesh

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to measure longitudinal Anthropometric data in the age interval 6-18 years of the school children of Jessore District in Bangladesh. Materials: Primary dataon stature and weight were collected longitudinally from 2006 to2018 using two stage random sampling technique. Methods:Descriptive statistics and their simulated valuesonstature, weight and BMI were calculated. Quantile regression was considered to the longitudinal data to develop growth charts. Results: The population mean weight (kg) for boys at the age 8 (year) were condensed in 22.20±0.38 whereas for girls that were more condensed in the range 23.06±0.58. While, for boys, at the age 18 year this mean were in 58.80±1.26 little bit fluctuated compared to that in other ages but a little bit scattered range was found for girls at the age 18 year as 53.56±1.54.The stature for age implied that for boys it was smoothly increasing while for girls it was smoothly increasing until age 12.5 but after that age it was increasing with slow motion and also motion with ups and down. The Weight for age shows that the upper 25% of the heavier children continued their strictly increasing patterns both in their stature and weight. About 42% boys and 33% girls showed always underweight in the age range 7-18 years. Only 2% girls and 1% boys showed overweight after age 12. Conclusion: These results and several growth charts might be used by the medical practitioners as well as the growth scientists.