secular trends in growth among school children of shiraz (southern iran) born in the post-war period

abstract background: secular trends in stature, weight and mid upper arm circumference (muac) of 2397 school children (1268 boys and 1129 girls) of the same age (6.5-11.5 years) and sex in representative samples from primary schools of shiraz (southern iran) at an interval of 15 years (1988 vs 2003) are reported. methods: cross-sectional weight, height and mid upper arm circumference (muac) curves were created for both sexes. one sample t-tests were utilized to analyze differences between average height, weight and muac of the 1988 and 2003 samples (the values of the previous study treated as constant). results: both samples included children of various socio-economic backgrounds for both males and females of each age-class. there are significant positive secular trends in stature, weight and muac of children born in the post-war period sampled in 2003. these children are generally taller, heavier, and larger than their peers of 15 years earlier born pre- and during the imposed war period of iraq against iran. the 2003 sample shows less growth deficits in relation to the cdc reference data. conclusion: the positive trend can be explained as the result of economic development and improvement of social and health indicators in iran in the post-war period.