BMC Public Health 2009, 9:485 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/9/485 Table 4: Sample and population weighted results of stunting, underweight and overweight/obesity of Palestinian girls from Ramallah and Hebron governorates by sociodemographic characteristics (n = 1047) Ramallah governorate Hebron governorate n Stunting % Underweight % Overweight/ obesea % Stunting % Underweight % Overweight/ obesea % n 354 182 150 274 125 413 109 347 85 89 59 189 277 176 287 76 163 274 67 255 269 84 465 3.4 6.0 6.0e 4.7 1.0 5.1 0.9 4.6 4.7 2.2 5.1 4.8 3.6 7.9** 2.4 2.7 3.6 5.1 3.0 4.7 3.7 10.6** 3.0 6.8 5.0 7.4 4.4 8.0 6.3 6.5 6.3 7.0 5.6 5.1 6.4 6.5 5.1 6.6 6.6 8.0 5.5 7.5 7.1 5.6 20.3 3.5 18.6 14.2 20.7 16.1 14.4 16.4 17.4 17.8 13.0 14.6 18.4 17.5 15.5 14.8 18.1 18.3 15.4 16.0 17.9 15.7 17.4 3.7*** 19.3 Residence Urban 176 1.9** 3.3 Rural 309 7.9 3.1 Age in years 13 207 5.6 1.9 14 224 6.3 4.7 15 67 5.2 1.0 Mother's education Low 355 6.0 2.6 Medium/High 139 5.2 4.6 Father's education Low 287 5.7 3.5 Medium 88 6.5 1.7 High 115 5.9 3.1 Family size 1-6 persons 111 2.8 1.4 7-8 persons 159 6.1 3.6 > 8 persons 216 7.0 3.5 Household STLb Low 100 8.4 4.0 Medium 216 6.4 2.5 High 133 3.6 3.3 Present household economic situation indexc Worse off 91 5.2 1.8 Medium 270 6.2 3.4 Better off 113 5.7 4.0 Food availabilityd Not available 165 4.0 2.7 Available 327 6.8 3.3 Onset of puberty No 100 15.6** 6.4 Yes 389 4.2 2.5 24.0 20.7 22.1 21.9 20.2 22.2 19.4 23.8 15.7 19.2 29.1e 24.7 16.9 12.7e 21.8 26.2 26.1 20.5 16.8 26.6 19.0 11.5** 23.5 *P < 0.05 **P < 0.01 *** P < 0.001 eP for trend < 0.05 aOverweight/obesity were defined using the 2000 CDC reference. bHousehold standard of living index (STL) was based on the possession of 16 household amenities; each item given a value of 1. cPresent household economic situation index was formulated d based on 4 questions: - "Do you have enough money to cover family needs now?" "At the present time, do you have any debts?" At the present time, to what extent do you have to postpone paying bills?" and "During the past school year, did you have to borrow money to cover family needs?". dFood availability was based on the question: is there enough food for all family members on daily basis now? Results from the multivariate regression analysis (Table 5) showed that high STL was independently associated with overweight/obesity in boys; while in girls only onset of puberty was significantly associated with overweight/ obesity. No colinearity or significant interactions were detected between variables in the models. Results from multivariate regression analysis for underweight showed that in boys, underweight was negatively associated with high STL and onset of puberty; while in girls it was nega- tively associated with residence in Ramallah governorate and onset of puberty (data not shown). covariates in a sample of Palestinian adolescents aged 13- 15 years from the two major West Bank governorates, Ramallah and Hebron, are reported. The findings revealed that conditions related both to overnutrition and under- nutrition are present in these two governorates. Higher prevalence of overweight/obesity was found among Ram- allah adolescents compared to their counterparts in Hebron and a higher prevalence among girls than boys in both governorates is reported. The prevalence rates of underweight and stunting were higher among boys than among girls in both governorates. Discussion Results of selected height and weight measurements for assessing nutritional status and their sociodemographic Girls were slightly over-represented in the sample because there were slightly more girls than boys in these two grades in schools. Most of the students were in the 13 and Page 8 of 12 (page number not for citation purposes)