Comparison of growth between native and immigrant infants between 0-3 years from the Dutch ABCD cohort

In the Netherlands separate reference charts have been developed for native and immigrant groups to deal with differences in growth patterns in later childhood. The use of these charts, however, is complicated by methodological issues; they do not represent all large Dutch immigrant groups in separate charts despite the differences that have been suggested and the evidence of ethnic disparities in growth dates back to 1997.

Anthropometric measurements from a contemporary multi-ethnic cohort study were created to quantify differences in childhood growth by creating growth charts, separately for boys and girls between the ages of 0-3 years.

The infants modelled in the charts had a mother born in the Netherlands (n = 3107), Suriname (n = 225), Turkey (n = 203) and Morocco (n = 336). Charts with and without correction for country of origin of the mother were created by using the LMST method.

All models including the covariate country of origin of the mother fitted the data better (p < 0.0005), but the observed differences were small.

Most remarkable differences were found in the BMI and weight measurements for age charts. Especially girls from mothers born in Turkey and Morocco had an increasingly heavier weight for their age than girls from mothers born in the Netherlands.