Prediction of percent body fat and energy requirements of preparatory school children in the Gaza strip

الملخص EN

This study was conducted to describe anthropometric measures of body fat and energy requirements of Prep.

School children (PSC) aged 12-14 yrs.

in three different socioeconomically communities in the Gaza Strip (GS).

It was also aimed to test whether body mass index (BMI) values are associated with energy requirements or socioeconomically factors among PSC in these communities.

Study sample was chosen purposively from three different socioeconomically communities in GS.

These communities are Jambalaya refugee camp (JRC), Gaza city (GC), and Al-Garrard village (GV).

It was selected randomly from two largest preparatory schools (one for males and one for females) per each area and totally consisted of 680 PSC (350 males and 330 females).

A structural and self-administered questionnaire about socioeconomically factors for each pupil in the sample was recorded.

Data were analyzed by SPSS WIN program.

Mean values of BMI and percent body fat (PBF) for the male pupils in GC, JRC, and GV were 19.77 (3.62), 18.92 (3.12), 18.51 (3.41) kg / m2 and 18.53(5.40), 17.26 (4.64), 16.59 (5.04) respectively.

On the other hand, mean values of BMI and PBF for female pupils in GC, JRC, and GV were 19.51 (4.00), 19.95 (4.00), 20.10 (92.81), kg / m2, and 21.75 (5.97), 22.42 (6.01), 22.59 (4.14), respectively.

Moreover, means of predicted total daily energy requirements (TDR) for the males in GC, JRC, and GV were 2540 (357), 2491 (315), 2415 (326) kcal / day and for the female pupils were 2220 (206), 2231 (215), 22259 (160) kcal / day, respectively. Results also showed statistical significant differences in PBF or energy requirements between both sexes in the three different communities (p<0.05).

In contrast, a significant difference was not observed in BMI between both sexes in GC (p= 0.62).

The values of BMI of PSC and basal metabolic rate (BMR) of the female pupils lied within the corresponding reference values of WHOM.

In contrast, BMR for the males is slightly higher than the corresponding reference values.

Moreover, BMI was strongly correlated with BMR in the three communities (p<0.01).

The results also showed that there were significant differences (p<0.05) in BMI or PBF or energy requirements among the males in GC and GV.

In contrast, these significant differences were not observed with the other communities.

Moreover, there were no significant differences in these variables for the female pupils in the three communities.

BMI was found to be highly associated with father job in GC (p= 0.02).