Anthropometric study of the school population of the autonomic community of Murcia

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to know the anthropometric study of school children in Murcia in order to obtain parameters of present reference for our country and region. METHODS: A transversal study of the school population of the community of Murcia at Preschool, EGB, BUP and Technical School levels was carried out including 1,930 children between the ages of 4 and 17. These children were selected from a total of 242,596 proportionally chosen with respect to demography of each of the twelve regions in the area with weight, height and bicipital, tricipital, subscapular and abdominal skin folds being measured. RESULTS: The values obtained and classified by age, sex and regions of the autonomic community of Murcia exposed in tables, demonstrate the differences existing in all the parameters measured with those routinely used at an international and national level. CONCLUSIONS: The differences found clearly justify the need to compare the regional antropometric alterations with the "reference parameters" obtained in Spain and Murcia for which other studies concerning the same would be advisable.