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Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study
09:36

Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study

Published on: February 2, 2017

Failure to thrive: the prevalence and concurrence of anthropometric criteria in a general infant population

E M Olsen1, J Petersen, A M Skovgaard

  • 1Research Centre for Prevention and Health, Glostrup University Hospital, Glostrup, Denmark. emao@glostruphosp.kbhamt.dk

Archives of Disease in Childhood
|March 15, 2006
PubMed

Insights

Failure to thrive (FTT) definitions lack consensus, impacting accurate identification of undernutrition in infants. Studies show poor agreement between criteria, highlighting the need for better diagnostic tools for early childhood development.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Nutrition
  • Child Development
  • Growth Monitoring

Background:

  • Failure to thrive (FTT) in early childhood is linked to developmental delays and undernutrition.
  • Current FTT definitions lack consensus, creating ambiguity in diagnosis.
  • The concurrence of various anthropometric definitions for FTT is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare the prevalence and agreement of different anthropometric criteria for FTT.
  • To evaluate the sensitivity and positive predictive values of FTT criteria in identifying significant undernutrition.
  • To define significant undernutrition as slow weight gain and low body mass index (BMI).

Main Methods:

  • Applied seven FTT criteria to a cohort of 6090 Danish infants.
  • Included criteria such as low weight-for-age, low BMI, low conditional weight gain, and Waterlow's criterion.
  • Compared criteria across two infant age groups: 2-6 months and 6-11 months.

Main Results:

  • 27% of infants met at least one FTT criterion in either age group.
  • Inter-criterion agreement was generally poor, with most infants identified by a single criterion.
  • Positive predictive values ranged from 1% to 58%, with most single criteria failing to accurately identify significant undernutrition.

Conclusions:

  • No single anthropometric measurement is sufficient for identifying nutritional growth delay.
  • Further longitudinal studies are required to assess the effectiveness of different criteria in detecting undernutrition and predicting outcomes.
Abstract

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