en public specific orginal article <div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div> <div style="text-align: justify;">Background: Malnutrition, as a serious health problem in children, has an increasing prevalence in the developing countries. This study aimed to evaluate the anthropometric indices of primary school children in Iranshahr, a city in central region of Sistan and Baluchestan province, Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 1000 6-14 year-old primary school children studying in 16 public and 5 private schools in Iranshahr city from May to June 2017. The sampling was done using multistage cluster random method. The school records were used to determine the students&#39; ages. Their weight, height, and body mass index (BMI) were measured. Anthropometric indices including weight-for-age, height-for-age, and BMI-for-age were assessed using the National Center for Health Statistics/World Health Organization international growth reference and Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2000). Results: The rate of thinness was significantly higher in public than private schools (18.1% vs 1%; P < 0.0001). Overweight/obesity was lower in public schools&rsquo; children compared to students of the private schools (0.1% vs 9.3%; P = 0.007). The rates of stunting and underweight in public and private schools&rsquo; children were 50.2% vs. 53.3% (P = 0.11) and 46.6% vs 35% (P < 0.0001), respectively. Conclusion: Findings showed that although nutritional status was better in private schools than public schools, malnutrition is still a potential public health problem in this area. Therefore, the nutrition interventions are suggested at national and regional levels to increase the parents&#39; awareness.</div> <div></div><div></div> Underweight, Stunting, Wasting, Primary schools, Children 249 255 http://jnfs.ssu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-128-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Mansour Karajibani fmontazerifar@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9032-9330 No Research Center, Department of Nutrition, School of Medicine, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, ZHealth Promotion ahedan, Iran Farzaneh Montazerifar mkarajibani@yahoo.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5065-5724 Yes Pregnancy Health Research Center, Department of Nutrition, School of Medicine, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran Hossnieh Asoudeh vernaaaal@gmail.com No Student Scientific Research Center, Department of Nutrition, School of Medicine, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran. Mohaddeseh Asoudeh mahdisasoudeh@gmail.com No Student Scientific Research Center, Department of Nutrition, School of Medicine, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran. Ali Reza Dashipour ar_dashipoor@yahoo.com No Department of Nutrition, School of Medicine, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran.