prevalence of malnutrition in children 7-12 years old in kerman, 2013

introduction: malnutrition remains the most serious children health problem and the most main cause of children mortality in the world health organization (who) eastern mediterranean region. nearly one-third of children in the region are either underweight or stunted, and more than 30% of the population suffers from micro-nutrient deficiencies.the aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of malnutrition among school children in kerman. material and methods: this is a cross–sectional study. the number of 1,056 students recurred in kerman, in the age range of 7 to12 years were selected by multistage sampling. children weight for age (w / a), height for age (h / a) and weight for height (w / h) indicators was calculated and were compared with nchs standard index. students&apos; height and weight were measured with standard tools. epi-info and stata 11 software were used for analysis. descriptive and chi 2 tests were used to provide a comparison according to (in) gender (sex). results: prevalence of malnutrition based on weight-for-age, height-for-age and weight-for-height respectively are 6.06, 5.58 and 75.9 percent and the prevalence average of malnutrition with above indicators respectively are 24.43, 26.04 and 24.90 percent. comparison of weight-for-age and weight-for-height indices in children showed higher prevalence of malnutrition in girls than boys (p-value<0.05). conclusion: according to results, prevalence of malnutrition among school children was high in kerman and must identify the factors creating it, and the necessary planning should be done to eliminate them.