Selected Body Measurements in Boys Ages 6-11 Years from Six Villages in Southern Tunisia: An International Comparison

Mean heights and weights for 205 boys aged 6-11 years in South Tunisia are compared with mean heights and weights of boys in the same age groups from India, Egypt and the U.S.A. Generally, boys from India rank lowest, Tunisian boys second lowest followed by the Egyptians and the U.S.A. boys with the highest means. Duncan Multiple Range Test was used to group each of the mean weights and heights of all ages from all countries into homogeneous subsets of similar magnitude. A similar height and weight is reached by the American boys about two years earlier than by the Tunisian boys. Skinfold comparisons for the triceps and subscapular skinfolds between the Tunisian and U.S.A. boys show that the Tunisian boys have between 16% and 49% lesser skinfold measurements with differences increasing with age.In comparing mean heights and weights of a Tunisian privileged group with the average U.S.A. group on the one hand and the Tunisian village group on the other hand, differences found are much greater between the two Tunisian groups of the same racial background but different socio­economic status than between the privileged Tunisians and the U.S. Americans of similar socio-economic status but different racial background.