Comparative study of anthropometric measurements of school children with and without mid-day meal programme

Abstract

Cross sectional study was conducted to compare nutritional status among children of 14- 16 years age of three different sets of schools namely Private High School Campus without mid-day meal programme, Govt. High School Hebbal with ISCKON mid-day meal programme and Govt. High School Bashettahalli Doddaballapur, with Govt. mid-day meal. Height, weight and body mass index were measured and compared with standards. Mean height of various age and gender combination revealed lower per cent compared to both IAP and NCHS standards. Whereas weight showed decreasing trend in male subjects as compared to female subjects whose weight increased with increase in age. Similar trend was observed in case of NCHS standards. Subjects of PHSC and GHSH had marginal difference for weight for age as compared to subjects of GHSB. BMI of all three school subjects was significantly lower than the WHO standards irrespective of age and gender. Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that majority of the subjects from all the three schools belonged to below the defined anthropometric standards. However, comparatively PHSC without MDM subjects showed better nutritional status compared to schools with MDM