THE RELEVANCE OF SIMPLE ANTHROPOMETRIC PARAMETER OF BODY

MASS INDEX (BMI) IN ASSESSING NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF
SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN RIVER STATE, NIGERIA
Bienonwu Emmanuel Osemeke
Department of Anatomy
University of Port Harcourt, Port-Harcourt, Nigeria
Email: ossybien@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
Body mass indices (BMI) were determined in one thousand (1000)
subjects of both sexes between the ages of 10—18 years. This
comprised of 500 students from day secondary school (261 males and
239 females) and 500 students from boarding school (259 males and
241 females). The result obtained showed that 490 students
constituting 98% of day school students had normal BMI with mean
BMI of 22.56 ±1.23. 10 students constituting 2% of day school students
were overweight with mean BMI of 27.24±3.08. While statistical
analyses from boarding school students showed 429 students
constituting 85.8% with normal BMI with mean BMI of 21.56 ± 1.13.71
students constituting 14.2% of boarding school students were
underweight with mean BMI of 17.40 ± 0.34.