Adequate nutrition is one of the most significant environmental factors influencing the level and dynamics of body growth and maintaining the well-being of people. This is particularly important during intensive growth in adolescence of children and teenagers, affecting the adequate course of all processes connected with that period of life on the biological level as well as in the psychological sphere (1, 2).

The aim of the work was the evaluation of the nutritional status of 16-year-olds from Olsztyn.

The research included 101 girls and 99 boys aged 16, attending high schools of different profiles, in Olsztyn. Subjects for the research were selected by the group method, by schools, and then two or three classes from each school. The research was conducted in Autumn 2002, with the agreement of the Bioethics Commission at the Regional Warmia and Masuria Physicians´ Chamber in Olsztyn (no 49/2001).

Nutritional status was evaluated by anthropometric methods, on the basis of the body mass and height, arm circumference and 4 skinfold thicknesses: triceps skinfold (TSF, mm), biceps skinfold (BSF, mm), subscapular skinfold (SCSF, mm) and suprailiac skinfold (SISF, mm) measurements. On their basis the BMI (kg/m²), fat mass (FM, kg), fat-free mass (FFM, kg), fat percentage in the body (%FM, %) and arm muscle circumference (AMC, cm) (1, 2, 3) were calculated. The results were displayed as mean value and standard deviation (x±SD), and then referred to percentage values determined for Warsaw teenagers (4). The population percentage was calculated in the specified percentage ranges. The statistical analysis was carried out with the computer program STATISTICA PL v.6.0.

The mean girls´ height amounted to 164.2±6.09 cm and met the 50^th percentile for girls from Warsaw (Table 1) (4). The mean height of boys, 172.6±10.1 cm, was close to the values over the 25^th percentile for Warsaw boys. The body mass of Olsztyn girls, amounting to 58.4±15.28 kg, was situated within the 50^th and the 75^th percentile. The mean body mass of the Olsztyn boys corresponded with values below the 50^th percentile. The body mass index (BMI) agreed with the 50^th-75^th percentile, and amounted to 21.6±5.05 kg/m² for girls, and 21.4±5.67 kg/m² for boys (Table 1). The mean arm circumference of girls (23.6±3.29 cm) was within the range determined by the 25^th and the 50^th percentile, while the mean arm circumference of boys (24.6±3.17 cm) matched the 25^th percentile for boys from Warsaw. The mean subscapular skinfold thickness of teenagers from Olsztyn amounted to 12.0±5.63 mm for girls, and 8.0±4.55 mm for boys. The values for girls corresponded with the 75^th percentile of Warsaw girls, while for boys they were from the 50^th to the 75^th percentile of Warsaw boys. Similar results concerning height, body mass, and BMI for Warsaw teenagers were obtained by Chwojnowska et al. (5). Slightly different results for teenagers from Biała Podlaska were obtained by Czeczelewski et al. (6). The mean body mass and height of girls from the Biała Podlaska Province amounted to: 48.6±6.1 kg and 160.0±5.2 cm respectively and boys to 50.4±8.4 kg and 163.8±7.2 cm. Results obtained for Olsztyn students in comparison to data for young people from Biała Podlaska were higher in the case of girls, 9.8 kg and 4.2 cm respectively, and with reference to boys, 12.8 kg and 8.8 cm respectively. BMI for subjects from Biała Podlaska Province reached a level of 18.9±1.7 kg/m² with reference to girls and 18.7±2.1 kg/m² for boys. The mean BMI values of Olsztyn´s teenagers in comparison to values analyzed by Czeczelewski et al. (1) were higher by 2.7 kg/m², both for girls and for boys.

Evaluation of the fat and muscular tissue content is harder than in the case of the basic parameters, because no parameters directly linking body content are included in the anthropometric parameters percentiles tables for Warsaw teenagers (4). In girls, the mean percentage fat content in the body (%FM) amounted to 23.2±4.44%, and the mean fat-free body mass content (FFM) to 44.5±10.02 kg (Table 1). In boys these values amounted to 10.2±4.82% and 56.4±7.00 kg, respectively. The Czeczelewski et al. (1) research on the body content of the teenagers from Biała Podlaska shows that the total fat amounted to 22.9% for girls, and to 13.9% for boys (6). Values for Olsztyn, compared to those mentioned above, differed and were higher by 0.3% in the case of girls and lower by 3.7% for boys. The mean fat-free body mass content of teenagers from Olsztyn in comparison to those from Biała Podlaska was higher, at 7 kg for girls and 13 kg for boys. The mean arm muscle circumference (AMC) for girls amounted to 20.3±2.84 cm, while for boys it was 22.9±2.95 cm (Table 1).

On the basis of the population distribution analysis in the percentile ranges, it was found that 79.2% of the analyzed girls and 85.8% of the boys have an adequate body mass in 10^th and the 90^th percentile (Table 2). Malnutrition of the body (<10^th percentile) was found in 5.9% of girls and in 7.1% of boys. Obesity (body mass>90^th percentile) was identified in 14.9% of girls and in 7.1% of boys. Adequate body height, in the range between the 10^th and the 90^th percentile, was stated for 81.2% of girls and 75.8% of boys. Body height below the 10^th percentile was revealed in 6.9% of girls and in 15.1% of boys, and over the 90^th percentile for 11.9% and 9.1%, respectively (Table 2). Adequate values of the body mass index (10^th percentileŁBMIŁ90^th percentile) characterized 75.1% of the girls and 81.8% of the analyzed boys (Table 2). Low body mass index (BMI<10^th percentile) was identified in 8.9% of girls and 6.1% of boys, and high values of this index (BMI>90^th percentile) were 16.8% and 12.1% respectively (Table 2). Adequate thickness of the subscapular skinfold (10^th percentileŁSCSFŁ90^th percentile) characterized 69.3% of girls and 78.8% of boys. Too low a thickness of the subscapular skinfold (SCSF<10^th percentile) was stated for 6.9% of girls and 13.1% of boys, while too thick subscapular skinfold (SCSF>90^th percentile), indicating obesity, was revealed in as many as 23.8% of girls and 8.1% of boys (Table 2). For about 40% of the girls, the subscapular skinfold thickness corresponded with values above the 75^th percentile. The results are evidence for a slightly greater fatness in the Olsztyn teenagers, localized in the upper part of the body, in comparison with the Warsaw values (Table 2). Similar results for young people from Śląsk were obtained by Mikusek et al. (7). In research on the environmental conditioning of growth, they showed that teenagers from groups of a lower socio-economic status are characterized by a higher fat content in the body.

School students from Olsztyn showed proper average body sizes and slightly more fatness, in the upper part of the body, when compared with the Warsaw standard teenagers.