Body weight and height in students from the metropolitan area of Chile: impact of the socioeconomic level Peso y estatura de escolares de la region metropolitana de Chile: impacto del nivel socioeconomico.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of socioeconomic (SE) status over weight and height of school children aged 5-18 years. A representative sample of 4509 school children was randomly chosen from Chile's Metropolitan Region (representative of 38% of the Chilean school population), according to grade, sex, type of school and geographic area. Weight and height were expressed as percentages derived from tables from the WHO. SE status was measured by the Graffar's modified method. Weight and height significantly decreased with SE status in all age groups. No difference was found in weight and height between males and females within SE and age groups. Weight and height in all SE groups were higher in this study compared to previously reported findings. This difference may be related to improvements in socioeconomic and cultural conditions in the last decades.