All issues > Volume 19(7); 1976

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1976;19(7):478-493. Published online July 31, 1976.

The Study on Physical Development and Anemia in School Children(Comparative Study among School feeding children, non-school feeding children in rural area, and urban school children)

Chung Hun Choy¹, Ja Hoon Koo¹

¹Department of Pediatrics,Kyungpook National University, School of Medicine, Daegu Korea

Abstract

During the early school years a steady rate of growth is normally maintained, but at about 10~12 years a predolescent growth spurt begins, usually with rapid increase in weight at first, followed by rapid increase in height. Nutrition is one of the most important factors for growth, and undernutrition or nutritional deficiency and anemia are considered as the important problems in this school children especially in developing countries. We intended to study the status of growth and anemia among school feeding children in rural area, non-school feeding in rural area, and urban school children. We collected on 1008 school children in city and 989 (533 School feeding group and 456 non-school feeding group) in rural area, and measured their height, weight, and hemoglobin as objective criterias of their physical growth and nutritional status. The following results were obtained;Comparing growth data of our study group children with the Korean Standard Growth Data (KSGD, 1967)，their height were superior to those of KSGD by 4.7cm in male, 4.9cm in female, and weight by 2. lkg in male, 1. 4kg in female. Comparing growth data of urban school children with KSGD, their height were superior to those of KSGD by 7. 0cm in male, 6. 4cm in female, and by weight 3. 4kg in male, 2. 2kg in female. Comparing growth data of rural school childrenCNon-school feeding group) with KSGD, their height were superior to those of KSGD by 1. 9cm in male, 2. 4cm in female, and weight by 0. 8 kg in male, 0. 5kg in female. There were significant differences between urban and rural school children. The differences in height were 3.13`5. 63cm(average, 4. 5cm) in male and 1. 41 ~6. 56cm (average 2.7cm) in female in each age groups. The differences in weight were 1. 67~3. 07kg (average, 2. 5kg) in male and 0. 39~2. 92kg (average, 1.7kg) in female in each age groups. The height and weight in school feeding children were superior to those of non-school feeding group and there were significant statistic values in differences of their height and weight after one and half years' School Feeding Program. (T-value>2) When hemoglobin value of less than 11. 5gm% was considered to represent anemia in school children, the incidence of anemia in urban area was 51. 06% in males, 53. 02% in females. No significant difference between male was observed. In rural area, the incidence of anemia in Non-school feeding children was 34.1% in males, 45. 4% in females, and the frequency of occurence was heigher for females than among males, with a ratio 1. 33 : 1. In rural area, the incidence of anemia in school feeding children was 25. 2% in males, 39. 2% in females and the sex incidence revealed a female predominance with ratio 1. 56 : 1.

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