The LMS method and weight and height centiles in Jujuy (Argentina) children

Human growth and its resulting patterns display a great inter- and intra-population heterogeneity that reflects the quality of life, health and nutritional condition of populations. The aim of this work was to expand the knowledge about the growth of Jujenean children by statistical procedures that graphically express the relation of anthropometric variables to age and allow their comparison with specific references. Anthropometric data came from 9092 children (0-5 years) from various localities of Jujuy province (northwest Argentina) located at 1200 m above sea level (ma.s.l.). The centiles of weight for age (W/A) and height for age (H/A) were obtained by the LMS method using maximum penalized likelihood. A statistical and graphic comparison was made with the corresponding Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) centile references. In general, estimated centiles were lower than those in both references. Discrepancies for H/A in comparison with the CDC reference ranged between 1.09+/-0.59% and 1.66+/-0.34%, and for W/A between 1.82+/-1.56% and 3.36+/-1.4%. In comparison with the WHO reference, discrepancies ranged from 1.38+/-0.65% to 1.87+/-0.41% for H/A, and from 1.12+/-1.28% to 2.74+/-1.49% for W/A. Centile discrepancies were attributed to the characteristics of early childhood feeding and the interaction of a set of biological and mesological factors that the Jujenean population is exposed to. Growth and nutritional conditions of this population should be evaluated with the WHO reference, for it reflects the recent growth pattern of biologically and culturally healthy children raised in favourable conditions, a pattern that also reflects that of Jujenean children.