Adnan Menderes Üniv. Tıp Fak. Anatomi AD, Aydın

Objective: The objectives of the current study were to determine the sitting height of the primary school children in Aydin, age, gender and living area, variables were considered. Relations between sitting height and individual's height, weight and Body Mass Index (BMI) were evaluated. Material and Method: A study group of 626 studens aging between 6-16 years were selected by multistage sampling. Height (cm), weight (kg) and sitting height (cm) of the students were measured and BMI (kg/m2) was calculated. Descriptive data was given as mean and standard deviation. Student T test, ANOVA and Bonferroni test for post hoc and Perason correlation were used for relationship assessment. Results: Of the students, 308 (49.2%) were boys and 318 ( 50.8 %) were girls; 365 (58.3%) were from urban and 261(41.7%) were from rural schools. Mean weight for girls was 33.95±11.26 kg., and 34.05±11.50 kg for boys (p=0.915); mean height for girls was 138.84±13.92 cm., and 140.19±15.01 cm for boys (p=0.247); mean BMI for girls was17.12±3.16 kg/m2 and 16.86±2.96 kg/m2 for boys (p=0.278). Mean sitting height for boys was 72.82± 7.24 cm and it was 72.39±7.15 cm (p=0.458) for girls the age of. In both gender sitting height was found to be increasing by age (p=0.000). The increase was significant at 10 for boys and at 9 for girls (respectively, p=0.001 and p=0.002). There was a positive, strong and significant correlation between sitting height and height, sitting height and weight, where there was a positive, medium and. significant correlation between sitting height and BMI. Conclusion: There was no significant difference between gender and living area for sitting height in Aydin. However, sitting height had been increasing with age. No gender difference was found among the same age group. Sitting height was observed to have the highest, positive and significant correlation with height. As a conclusion, it was thought that age should be taken account in deciding design of the school's desks.