Growth performance of Bangladeshi affluent school children (5–14 years)

A cross sectional anthropometric survey of 2045 healthy children (5–14 years) of affluent society of Dhaka City was done with the aim to compare their growth with the National Centre for Health Statistics (NCHS) standard. It was found that both weight and height of boys and girls of the studied children fall between 25th to 50th percentile of NCHS standard. In case of boys, body weight deviates below 25th percentile after 12 years whereas mean height is nearly parallel to 50th percentile upto 14 years. In case of girls, the pattern of growth is same except the fall below 25th percentile at the age of 8 and 9 years and the height remains above 25th percentile upto 12 years. It can be concluded that mean growth of affluent Bangladeshi school children is comparable to NCHS standard with minor variations.