Comparison of the nutritional status of Baghdad children aged 0-5 years with the NCHS/CDC reference population

ABSTRACT

A cross-sectional study of the heights and weights of Baghdad pre- school age children of 0-5 years was conducted during 1987-1989. The sample was 2398 subjects being 1219 male and 1179 females. On comparison with the data of NCHS/CDC reference population, using height for age and weight for height as a basic indices in terms of centiles and standard deviation [SD] scores. The results showed that weights of our children were much closer to the NCHS/CDC reference data, 59,58% falling above the 50th centile of the reference population. On the other hand, the Baghdad children were shorter than NCHS/ CDC reference children,47.73% falling below the 30th centile of the reference population