Increase in size of Jamaican school children in recent years

ABSTRACT

Standards for height and weight of Jamaican children aged 6-12 years based on measurements of 11,552 boys and girls attending 34 schools in rural and urban districts are presented. Comparisons with other studies showed that full growth potential was not being reached, but the long-term effects of this slower growth upon health are not known. Children from the city, plains and coast were larger than those from the hills. Mean heights and weights were greater than those found in surveys of the same schools, using identical techniques, about 12 years earlier (AU)