Nutritional status, body composition in school children aged 11-14 years old as assessed by body mass index, percentage body fat, and the relationship between the two indicators

ABSTRACT

Background: Previously, most studies evaluating nutritional status in Vietnam are based on the weight, height indexes or body mass index (BMI). Recently, Ha Huy Tue and his colleagues conducted a study to evaluate body composition in adults in both rural and urban\r\n', u'Objectives: To evaluate nutritional status and body composition and analyze the roleof BMI and percentage body fat (% BF) in determining the status of overweight and obesity\r\n', u'Subjects and method: A cross \u2013sectional study was carried out in 2.671 pupils (male/female 50.6%/49.4%) aged 11-14 years old of 6 secondary schools in Hanam province Binh Luc district. BMI and %BF are the two indicators used for analyzing. \r\n', u'Results: The prevalence of subjects with BMI\ufffd?5th percentile was less than 1% for both males and females. Mean %BF ranged from 17.4-18.3% and from 13.9-20.2% for males and females, respectively. One unit of BMI corresponds to a large range of %BF. %BF has a goof sensitivity to detect high body fat in males; %BF can be a indicator to identify early overweight and obesity in pupils.\r\n', u'Conclusion: Proportion of overweight and obesity in 11-14 year-old schoolchildren of Binh Luc district, Ha Nam province is low. Therefore, obesity is not significant issue for the public health in the local. % BF can be used for the prevention of overweight, obesity in the community, especially the schoolchildren.\r\n', u'\r\n', u'\r\n', u'