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Updated: May 1, 2026

Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study
Published on: February 2, 2017
An investigation of factors affecting elementary school students' BMI values based on the system dynamics modeling
Tian-Syung Lan1, Kai-Ling Chen2, Pin-Chang Chen1
1Department of Information Management, Yu Da University of Science and Technology, Miaoli 36143, Taiwan.
Abstract:
This study used system dynamics method to investigate the factors affecting elementary school students' BMI values. The construction of the dynamic model is divided into the qualitative causal loop and the quantitative system dynamics modeling. According to the system dynamics modeling, this study consisted of research on the four dimensions: student's personal life style, diet-relevant parenting behaviors, advocacy and implementation of school nutrition education, and students' peer interaction. The results of this study showed that students with more adequate health concepts usually have better eating behaviors and consequently have less chance of becoming obese. In addition, this study also verified that educational attainment and socioeconomic status of parents have a positive correlation with students' amounts of physical activity, and nutrition education has a prominent influence on changing students' high-calorie diets.
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