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Reference values for change in body mass index from birth to 18 years of age

J Karlberg1, C W Kwan, K Albertsson-Wikland

  • 1Clinical Trials Centre, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, PR China. jpekarl@hkucc.hku.hk

Acta Paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992)
|July 15, 2003
PubMed

Insights

New reference values track changes in Body Mass Index (BMI) for children. These growth rate values aid in evaluating nutritional and therapeutic interventions for pediatric health.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Endocrinology
  • Nutritional Science
  • Biostatistics

Background:

  • Body Mass Index (BMI) is crucial for assessing pediatric nutritional status.
  • Existing cross-sectional BMI references lack longitudinal change evaluation.
  • Accurate assessment of childhood nutritional interventions requires BMI change reference values.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To present novel reference values for Body Mass Index (BMI) change in children.
  • To provide tools for evaluating the effectiveness of pediatric interventions.
  • To support clinical decision-making in pediatric nutrition.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized longitudinal data from 3650 healthy, full-term Swedish children.
  • Calculated reference values for BMI change as standard deviation scores.
  • Developed mathematical functions adjusting for gender, age, and measurement intervals (0.25-5 years).

Main Results:

  • Presented reference values for BMI change in healthy children from birth to 18 years.
  • Demonstrated the utility of these values via a clinical computer program graph.
  • Enabled computation and visualization of individual child's predicted BMI change range (-2 to +2 SD).

Conclusions:

  • Introduced the first BMI growth rate values for research and clinical use.
  • These values facilitate the evaluation of nutritional, surgical, and therapeutic interventions.
  • Provides enhanced support for clinical decision-making in pediatric care.
Abstract

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