BMC Public Health Research article Prevalence and sociodemographic correlates of stunting, underweight, and overweight among Palestinian school adolescents (13-15 years) in two major governorates in the West Bank Nahed Mikki*1,2, Hanan F Abdul-Rahim3, Faisal Awartani4 and Gerd Holmboe-Ottesen1 BioMed Central Open Access Address: 1Section of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology, Institute of General Practice and Community Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway, 2Institute of Community and Public Health, Birzeit University, Ramallah, Occupied Palestinian territory, 3International Affairs Department, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar and 4Alpha International for Research, Polling and Informatics, Ramallah, Occupied Palestinian territory Email: Nahed Mikki* - nahedmikki@yahoo.com; Hanan F Abdul-Rahim - hanan.arahim@qu.edu.qa; Faisal Awartani - faisal@alpha.ps; Gerd Holmboe-Ottesen - gerd.holmboe-ottesen@medisin.uio.no * Corresponding author Published: 23 December 2009 BMC Public Health 2009, 9:485 doi:10.1186/1471-2458-9-485 This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/9/485 Received: 19 May 2009 Accepted: 23 December 2009 © 2009 Mikki et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Background: There is little information about height and weight status of Palestinian adolescents. The objective of this paper was to assess the prevalence of stunting, underweight, and overweight/obesity among Palestinian school adolescents (13-15 years) and associated sociodemographic factors in 2 major governorates in the West Bank. Methods: A Cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2005 comprising 1942 students in 65 schools in Ramallah and Hebron governorates. Data was collected through self-administered questionnaires from students and parents. Weights and heights were measured. Overweight and obesity were assessed using the 2000 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reference and the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) criteria. Stunting and underweight were assessed using the 2000 CDC reference. Results: Overweight/obesity was more prevalent in Ramallah than in Hebron and affected more girls than boys. Using the 2000 CDC reference, the prevalence of overweight and obesity in Ramallah among boys was 9.6% and 8.2%, respectively versus 15.6% and 6.0% among girls (P < 0.01). In Hebron, the corresponding figures were 8.5% and 4.9% for boys and 13.5% and 3.4% for girls (P < 0.01). Using the IOTF criteria, the prevalence of overweight and obesity among boys in Ramallah was 13.3% and 5.2%, respectively versus 18.9% and 3.3% for girls. The prevalence of overweight and obesity among boys in Hebron was 10.9% and 2.2%, respectively versus 14.9% and 2.0% for girls. Overweight/obesity was associated with high standard of living (STL) among boys and with the onset of puberty among girls. More boys were underweight than girls, and the prevalence was higher in Hebron (12.9% and 6.0% in boys and girls, respectively (P < 0.01)) than in Ramallah (9.7% and 3.1% in boys and girls, respectively (p < 0.01)). The prevalence of stunting was similar in both governorates, and was higher among boys (9.2% and 9.4% in Ramallah and Hebron, respectively) than among girls (5.9% and 4.2% in Ramallah and Hebron, respectively). Stunting was negatively associated with father's education among boys and with urban residence, medium STL and onset of puberty among girls. Conclusion: Under- and overnutrition co-exist among Palestinian adolescents, with differences between sexes. Region, residence, STL, and onset of puberty were associated factors. Page 1 of 12 (page number not for citation purposes)