BODY COMPOSITION OF SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Considering the growing global problem and the lack of obesity data in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH) the main aim of this paper was to determine BH school-age children body composition and determine the differences in body composition between girls and boys classified in underweight, normal weight and overweight according to the body mass index (BMI) score. 2524 participants 1763 girls and 761 boys (aged 10-13 yrs.) from 32 elementary schools were randomly selected and divided to 3 BMI groups by WHO cut-off points. InBody 370 Body Composition Analyzer (BioSpace, Seoul, Korea), a segmental bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) device was used to gather data. The results showed ~38% of the sample were classified as overweight whilst gender differences showed higher body fat mass and fat percentages in arms, trunk and legs in underweight and normal weight girls and higher skeletal muscle mass in normal weight and overweight boys.