Shafat Khatoon, Aijaz Ahmed, Muhammad Zubair.
BMI - Dietary Practics Of School Going Children And Their BMI May Predict Future Health Hazards.
Professional Med J Jan ;24(9):1392-7.

Malnutrition results in the death of about 54 percent of all child death each year. From the time of birth of a children to the growing age nutrition and balanced diet is one of the major concerns of parents and the nutritionists. Many different ways are devised to assess the nutritional status of the child. One of the widely accepted tools is to measure the Body Mass Index (BMI) of child. BMI provides a non-interventional and easy method for early diagnosis of malnutrition. Objectives: To determine current dietary practices among school going children and highlight the health risks associated with abnormal BMI. Place and Duration: Government setup, Primary and Middle Schools of Islamabad were visited, from 1st August 2015 to 31st November 2015. Study Design: A questionnaire based cross-sectional study. Patients and Methods: A sample size of 184 was taken. Parents of class 6, 7 and 8 included. Parents were asked to fill with diaries of students and was taken back after 3 days. Height and weight was taken. Results: Out of 184, male students were 109 and female students were 71. 125 children took breakfast. 61 eat vegetables 3 times a week and 3 twice a week. 16 children never eat vegetables. 103 children had good appetite. Conclusion: Dietary habits in children in urban area is satisfactory, but slightly increase tendency towards unhealthy food is observed.

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