Growth charts suitable for evaluation of Indian children

To assess the suitability of recently published reference anthropometric data for evaluation of the growth of children in our region.

Referral Pediatric Endocrinology Clinic in tertiary level care hospital.

280 normal school children and 155 children referred for growth retardation to the clinic in 1993 and 1994.

Heights of school children were plotted on growth charts created from recently published reference growth data of children from high socioeconomic group families. The case records of 155 children referred for growth evaluation were retrospectively analyzed for (i) etiology of short stature, (ii) height percentile based on previously used Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) references, and (iii) height percentile and standard deviation scores based on the new references.

93% of school children fell above and 7% below the 5th centile of the new height references. Of the 129 clinic children diagnosed to have growth retardation, 128 fell below the 5th centile of the new references. However, 38 of these (29.5%) fell above the 5th centile of ICMR references. These included patients with pathological causes of short stature. Twenty four of 26 children labelled as having no growth problem fell above the 5th centile of new reference data.

The 5th height centile of new reference data from high socioeconomic group children is an appropriate cut off below which to evaluate children for short stature in our region. It will allow earlier identification and treatment than the hitherto used ICMR percentiles, and yet is not expected to result in over investigation of normal children.