Height and weight measurements of Ibadan school children

Height and weight measurements were carried out on three groups of Nigerian primary school children aged 6-12 years, in and around Ibadan. A total of 1,192 children was examined from three social classes as follows: (1) the educated elite group (n = 444); (2) the urban low socio-economic group (n = 366), and (3) the rural village group (n = 382). The school children from the educated elite group had the highest mean height and weight values while the school children from the rural group had the lowest values and the urban low socio-economic came in between the two. In the children of the educated elite class, mean heights and weights were higher than those of the international reference population (though not significantly so) only at ages 6-9 years. Malnutrition as indicated by wasting and stunting was prevalent among both rural and urban low socio-economic school children. The prevalence of wasting was 75.9% among the rural school children, while it was 62.5% among the urban low socio-economic children. The prevalence of stunting was 79.1% among the rural school children, while it was 62.9% among the urban low socio-economic school children. Neither stunting nor wasting was observed among the children of the elite educated group. This study has demonstrated that there has been no change with time in the pattern of differences of height and weight with respect to school children of various social classes.