Prevalence of overweight and thinness in high-school girls in Kerman, Iran

The prevalence of obesity and thinness is unknown among Iranian high-school age girls. We determined the prevalence of overweight and underweight among Iranian high-school girls from Kerman (south-east province of Iran).

A cross-sectional study of indicative cluster sample.

Weight, height, body mass index (BMI), chest, waist, abdomen, hip and thigh circumference of 1000 Iranian high-school girls aged 14-21 y (mean (standard deviation, s.d.) 16.2 (1.3)) were measured. The criteria for very underweight, underweight, desirable weight, grade 1, 2 and 3 overweight used in the present study were: BMI in kg/m2 < 15, 15-19.9, 20-24.9, 25-29.9, 30-39.9 and > or = 40, respectively.

4.6% (95% confidence interval (CI): 3.4%-6.1%) were grade 1 overweight (BMI = 25.0-29.9), 0.7% (95% CI: 0.3%-1.4%) were grade 2 overweight (BMI = 30-39.9), and none were grade 3 overweight (BMI > or = 40), while 54.6% (95% CI: 51.5%-57.7%) were underweight (BMI = 15-19.9) and 1.6% (95% CI: 0.9%-2.6%) were very underweight (BMI < 15). The mean (s.d.) BMI was 19.8 (2.9) (95% CI: 19.6-20.0). The mean (s.d.) waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), abdomen-to-hip ratio and chest-to-hip ratio values were 0.8 (0.06) (95% CI: 0.8-0.81), 0.8 (0.07) (95% CI: 0.8-0.81) and 0.9 (0.07) (95% CI: 0.9-0.91), respectively, in this sample.

The results suggest a low prevalence of overweight among Iranian young women.