Background: Increase in childhood overweight and obesity have become a major public health problem in industrialized nation. It is also increasing in developing countries. School going children of this country is suffering from malnutrition rather than obesity. The national nutrition survey (1995-96) report shows that about 62% of the children aged 6-9 years are malnourished. The nutritional status, physical activity and food habit of school going children of Bangladesh is not known. Objectives: To know the nutritional status, physical activity and food habit of children of a selected government-run primary school at a coastal as well as peripheral district town of Bangladesh. Method: This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in the Department of Physiology, Abdul Malek Ukil Medical College, Noakhali, Bangladesh during the period of April. 2012- June, 2012. Two hundred and twenty students of a selected government-run primary school of a district town of Bangladesh were enrolled for the study by using convenient sampling. Data on diet, physical activity, height (cm) and weight (kg) were collected using a structured questionnaire. Permission was taken from concerned authorities consent from participants. BMI <5, 5-85, >85, and >95 percentile were considered under-weight, normal, overweight, and obese respectively. Data were analyzed by using SPSS (version 12) for windows and web-based "Excel BMI calculator”. Result: There were 41.4 percent boys. The mean age was 9.3+1.6 years. The main diet was rice or bread made of wheat-flour (85.5%) in breakfast, rice with meat, fish, egg, or vegetables for lunch (95.45%) and same menu for dinner (98.64%). Forty-six percent students drank cow's milk and 22.7% soft drinks. Ninety-nine percent students participated in games for a mean period of 2.81+1.25 hours. The mean+SD period of playing outdoor-game, indoor-game and game-at-school was 1.35+0.58, 1.04+0.45, and 0.76+0.31 hours respectively. Eighty-three percent students did household work for a mean period of 1.03=0.65 hours. The mean=SD height, weight and BMI of the students were 126.6:9.9 cm, 22.015.07 kg and 13.561.60 respectively. Conclusion: Sixty-five percent students were underweight, 34.55% normal weight and 0.45% obese. The prevalence of under-weight was alarmingly high and that of overweight and obesity was extremely low among the students of a government-run primary school ina peripheral district town of Bangladesh. Ninety-nine percent students participated in physical activity. The menu of diet contained all kinds of food but the quantity of food was not measured.

Malnutrition is a condition in which lack of one or more nutrients for a long time retards physical growth, mental development and causes clinical disorders like low birth weight, wasting, stunting, underweight, vitamin A deficiency, iodine deficiency disorder and iron deficiency anemia.’ School age is the active growing phase of childhood; it represents a dynamic period of child’s physical growth and mental development. The nutritional status of school-aged children impacts their health,  cognition, and subsequently their educational achievement.’ Protein energy malnutrition has been a common health problem of the third world. It is of much serious concern among children of school-going age who are deprived of good and ample nutrition due to their poor socio-economic status, ignorance and lack of health promotional facilities.” More than 90% of the global burden of malnutrition is attributable to 36 countries of the world, and Bangladesh is one of them.” The national nutrition survey (1995-96) report shows that 65.2% of the children aged 6-9 years are malnourished, 5.8% stunted but not underweight, 12.7% underweight but not stunted, 46.7% both stunted and underweight and about 35% of the children are normal in all the parameters.” Malnutrition among school age children is a major public health concern. More than 200 million school age children are stunted and underweight; about one billion school children will be growing up by 2020 with impaired physical and mental development.® The Government of Bangladesh is committed to fulfilling children's rights to nutrition through its ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Millennium Development Goals, many of which are closely linked with nutrition and it has made good progress towards the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger. Some studies have been carried out among the slum children and school children of Dhaka to assess their nutritional status. However, little is known about the state of nutrition, physical activity and food habit of primary school children in a coastal as well as peripheral district of town of Bangladesh. The aim of this study was to assess the nutritional status and physical activity and food habit of the children of a public primary school in a peripheral district down of Bangladesh.