66 Rana et al. Int. J. Biosci. 2012 RESEARCH PAPER OPEN ACCESS Assessment of nutritional status of 5-10 years Garo children in Sherpur District, Bangladesh Md. Masud Rana 1 , Aysha Ferdoushi 1* , Sonia Tamanna 2 , Farah Sabrin 1 , Nushrat Nahida Afroz 3 1 Department of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University, Bangladesh 2 Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh 3 Department of Business Administration, Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University, Bangladesh Received: 20 October 2012 Revised: 27 October 2012 Accepted: 28 October 2012 Key words: Garo, nutritional assessment, anthropometry, under-nutrition, children, tribe. Abstract A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the nutritional status among Garo children based on recently developed age and sex specific international body mass index (BMI) cutoff points for children and adolescents. The study subjects were selected following simple random sampling method form Jhenaigati Upazila in Sherpur District of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Data on a total of 324 children (54.01% boys and 45.99% girls) aged 5-10 years was included for the analysis. Following standard formula height and weight were measured and BMI was calculated. The overall prevalence of thinness, normal weight and overweight were 30.88%, 65.11%, and 4.01 %, respectively. The prevalence of underweight 1 st degree (-1SD to -1.99SD), 2 nd degree (-2SD to -2.99SD) and 3 rd degree(≤-3SD) were 67.28%,14.16% and 1.59%,being 66.84%,17.15% ,0.58% for the boys and 67.75% ,11.40% ,2.01 % among the girls. The prevalence of stunting Grade I (-1SD to -1.99 SD), Grade II (-2SD to -2.99 SD) and Grade III (≤-3 SD) were 63.89%,8.95% and 1.23%, being 62.3%,9.14% ,1.14% for the boys and 63.15% ,8.72% ,2.01 % for the girls. The prevalence of grade-II and grade-III thinness were 1.02 and 1.04 times higher among girls compared to boys, whereas the prevalence of grade-I thinness was 0.91 times higher among boys compared to girls. * Corresponding Author: Aysha Ferdoushi  nupur_bmb@yahoo.com International Journal of Biosciences (IJB) ISSN: 2220-6655 (Print) 2222-5234 (Online) Vol. 2, No. 11, p. 66-73, 2012 http://www.innspub.net