Development of the Nepalese growth standard for the school-aged children.

Research Report.

SUMMARY: This cross-sectional survey has been designed to develop the national growth standard (weight for age, height for age, weight for height, and body mass index) for Nepalese school children. The survey was conducted in 15 districts representing different ecological and administrative regions. Multistage random sampling was used for the selection of schools, and students to include different ethnicity, age (5-19 years) and sex. Anthropometric measurements of 6887 sampled students were performed by asking the age and measuring and recording of height and weight. The data was entered into SPSS and descriptive analysis was done. This study determined the growth standard for Nepalese children which can be used as reference values to determine nutrition status of Nepalese population. There should be standardization of the findings of this study to use it for growth monitoring of the children and nutrition survey.