en Biostatistics and Epidemiology Biostatistics and Epidemiology Original Research Original Research <p> <strong>ABSTRACT</strong></p><p> <strong>Background:</strong> 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.</p><p> <strong>Methods:</strong> 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).</p><p> <strong>Results:</strong> 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.</p><p> <strong>Conclusion:</strong> 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.</p> Secular Trend, Growth, Height, Weight, MUAC 141 146 http://mjiri.iums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1-225&slc_lang=en&sid=1 S.M.T. AYATOLLAHI anayatolahim@sums.ac.ir 20031947532846002379 20031947532846002379 Yes Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology. P.O.Box: 71345-1874, School of Public Health S. POUR-AHMAD 20031947532846002380 20031947532846002380 No Z. SHAYAN 20031947532846002381 20031947532846002381 No