Final height prediction in constitutional growth delay

Methods to predict the final stature of children are commonly used in pediatric endocrinology since one of the questions that parents have about their short children is how tall he or she will be as an adult. There is a disparity between what the family wants and what the physician expects from a height prediction, and what is available. The family wants an accurate prediction of final height for their child. What the physician expects is a well-validated and accurate technique applicable to individual children and that can be trusted for use, not just with normally growing children, but also with children exhibiting abnormal growth. Unfortunately, what is available from the generally used height prediction methods are estimates, with fairly broad error limits, based on groups of normal children followed to adult height. The underlying problem in predicting final height is that there is considerable individual variation in the timing and tempo of puberty and the pubertal growth spurt in individual children which significantly impacts the validity of the techniques when applied to individual children. This article reviews the methods of height prediction that are available, and their limitations.