Nikola Radulović, Ilona Mihajlović, Milena Mikalački, Nebojša Čokorilo and
Mila Vukadinović
Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate the nutritional status of younger school children. It
included 325 respondents, 196 of which were boys and 129 girls aged 7-11, from the
elementary schools in Novi Pazar. Body height and weight were measured in February 2014,
based on which the body mass index was calculated. Harrison‘s categorization was used for
the evaluation of the degree of nutritional status of the respondents. Data were analyzed by
multivariate analysis of variance. The research results show that there is a statistically
significant difference in the nutritional status between boys and girls of younger school age (p
≤ .05), i.e. 18.61% of girls and only 12.75% of boys were overweight. The category of lean
respondents included 35.72% boys and 24.03% girls. Considering the variables of body
weight and body mass index, there were statistically significant difference between the boys
and girls (p = .00). The girls had higher numerical values of body mass (30.10kg) than boys
(28.07kg), and at the variable of body fat index, it was also observed that girls (21.63kg/m2)
recorded higher values than boys (19.97kg/m2). The conclusion is that girls of younger
school age have a higher degree of nutrition, higher body weight and body mass index than
boys.
Key words: Body mass index, body waight, Harisson categorization.
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