Characteristics of physical development of primary school -aged children (Perm, cross -sectional study, 2019)

An anthropometric study of 607 primary school-aged children (7 to 11 years old) showed that the height and body weight values were within the normal range in 90% of children, and the body mass index [BMI] – in >70%. For the height and body weight, this range involved the values from –2SDS to +2SDS (standard deviations from the age-specific median value). For BMI, values in the range from –2SDS to +1SDS were considered normal. The distribution of the age-based weight and height parameters as related to WHO reference standards demonstrated the right shift by 0.33-0.53 SDS, i.e. towards higher values. It was shown that 75 children (12.4%) were obese. Other researchers, who conducted similar measurements in different regions of Russia, reported about the same proportion of children with obesity. Among primary schoolers, the incidence of obesity was higher in boys.