Abstract
Abstract Due to the numerous side effects caused by the modern way of life, there is an urgent need to monitor the morphological characteristics and nutritional status of school children. The purpose of this research was to establish a level of morphological characteristics and nutritional status in young school children, as well as to determine differences according to gender. This research was carried out on 60 children from the five grades of the three different Primary schools in Montenegro, 34 boys (10,92±0,29 years) and 26 girls (10,81±0,29 years). The Morphological characteristics were evaluated by a battery of four variables: body height, body weight, waist circumference, hip circumference, and then the values of the body mass index have been calculated. The significance of the differences between boys and girls was determined by t-test for small independent samples. The level of nutrition was established and indicates that there are six underweight children (10%), 35 with normal weight (58,3%), and 19 overweight children (31,7%). Also, boys have a higher percentage of overweight, as many as 15 (44,1%), while girls have only 4 (15,4%). There are no significant differences between boys and girls in morphological parameters at all, although the boys have slightly higher numerical values in all parameters. The obtained results indicate that a third of school children are overweight, and almost half of boys at this age also are overweight. These findings confirm the need to perform more comprehensive research of morphological indicators and nutritional status in children.
Keywords: anthropometric characterises, BMI, level of nutrition, pupils