There is scarce information on the relative importance of socio-economic fac
tors in determining the adolescent anthropometric measurements. The objective of this
study was to examine the effects of economic status, education level, and food consumption
on the height and weight of community adolescents in Nepal. The study was done in the
communities of the Kathmandu Valley area in Nepal. All together 426 unmarried adoles
cent girls aged 14-19y were selected, The adolescents were interviewed regarding socio
economic background (education, occupation and property possessions) and frequency of
foods consumption. Height and weight were determined and BMI was calculated. Z-scores of
height-for-age and weight-for-age were calculated based on the WHO/NCHS standard to
avoid bias by age. The adolescents participating in the survey were categorized into three
groups using the various indicators of economic status: Low Economic Status (LES) group,
Middle Economic Status (MES) group and High Economic Status (HES) group. The Z-scores
of height and weight were significantly lower in the LES group than in the MES and HES
groups (p<0.05). The Z-score of height was significantly increased with education level
even under the condition of controlling economic level (p<0.05). Since the frequency of
milk consumption was significantly related not only with height (p<0.05), but also with
economic (X2=31.6, df=4, p<0.001) and education levels (X2=22.4, df=6, p<0.01), the
increased height in the groups of the better economic status or the better education level
was interpreted to be due to the outcome of the higher frequency of milk consumption. This
study indicated that education was a more important factor affecting the height of the ado
lescents via improved food habits even under adverse economic conditions.