[Study on the changing status of morphological development among minority students in China, from 1985 to 2005]

To identify the changes of morphological development status on minority students in China from 1985 to 2005.

We selected a total of 15 groups of the Chinese minority students as subjects of the study, including Mongolian, Hui, Uygur, Zhuang, Korean, Tibetan, Yao, Li, Qiang, Buyi, Dong, Miao, Tu, Salar, Kirgiz, with data from the Chinese national survey on students' physical fitness and health condition in 1985, 1995, 2000 and 2005. Height, weight and waist of the subjects were calculated and analyzed.

From 1985 to 2005, the growth and characteristics of height in the Chinese minority students had a similar increase when comparing to the Han students, but with different degrees. However the growth rate was gradually decreasing. The average heights of Kirgiz, Korean, Salar and Mongolian schoolboys aged 18 years old were 170 cm, being 170.91 cm, 170.47 cm, 170.29 cm and 170.27 cm, respectively, which were close to that of the Han students. Some minority students had a substantial increase of body weight. However, the waist of some minority students decreased. Only a few groups of minority students had increasing waist, such as Mongolian and Korean rural boys, Mongolian, Zhuang, and Korean rural girls, with the growth being 0.101 cm, 0.095 cm, 0.126 cm, 0.163 cm and 0.107 cm, respectively. Uygur, Mongolian, Kirgiz and Korean students had the morphological development similar to Han urban students, especially Uighur boys and girls.

From 1985 to 2005, The height, weight and waist of Chinese minority students had an overall increase at different degrees. In order to improve the physical fitness of minority students, awareness on nutrition and health education of both students and parents should be strengthened. Surveillance and programs on growth, development and health status of the minority children and adolescents should also be carried out continuously.