Category of nutritional status of adolescents according to sex and the place of residence

World-wide organizations focus research to the infancy and early childhood development because adolescence is not considered vulnerable as previous two stages. But it is very complicated period of life (physical and cognitive growth and development) with high impact of risky behaviour and the deadlines for establishment of good practices including food habits. The study included 630 participants, 133 adolescents from the rural part (60 boys and 73 girls) and 497 adolescents from urban part (264 boys and 233 girls) of Canton Sarajevo. Participants were 13-15 years old. Anthropometric measurements were used: measurement of body weight and body height in order to calculate the BMI-for-age percentiles and skinfold thickness at four sites (biceps, triceps, subscapula, stomach) as additional parameters for determining category of nutritional status. Data were statistically analyzed using SPSS 13.0. Results show no statistical significance of the place of residence in relation to any tested parameter among girls. While among boys statistical significance was demonstrated in relation to the differences in the mean skin fold of subscapula (U = 6138.5, p = 0.02), stomach (U = 5847.5, p = 0.005), biceps (U = 6297.5, p = 0.038), triceps (U = 6161.5, p = 0.022), and mean values of measured four skinfolds (U = 7661.5, p = 0.007) where boys from rural areas have lower levels of skinfolds and lower mean of all four measured skinfolds. Results of BMI-for-age percentiles according to sex and the place of residence, show that normal weight is prevalent among adolescents in the Canton Sarajevo followed by overweight and obesity. Results indicate that adolescents in the urban part of Canton Sarajevo are thicker, there is higher number of overweight adolescents and among them is a higher percentage of adolescent girls.