Variation of growth in height and weight of children. II. After infancy

Area of Science:

• Pediatrics and Child Health
• Growth Monitoring
• Biostatistics

Background:

• Early detection of abnormal growth in children is crucial for timely intervention.
• Existing growth monitoring methods may not adequately capture subtle changes in growth velocity.
• Relative height and weight are indirect indicators of growth velocity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop novel growth charts for early detection of abnormal growth patterns in children.
• To establish standards for monitoring changes in relative height (SD score, SDS) and relative weight (%DW) over time.
• To analyze variations in growth velocity indicators across different childhood age periods.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of growth data from 2,156 children aged 2 to 19 years.
• Construction of new height-based growth charts for direct reading of SDS and %DW.
• Definition and analysis of variations in changes (delta) of SDS and %DW during different growth periods.

Main Results:

• Novel growth charts allow direct reading of relative height (SDS) and relative weight (%DW).
• Weight variation is primarily explained by height variation (mean 60%), with age being insignificant.
• Variations in delta SDS and delta %DW exhibit specific patterns across childhood, with widest variations in early years and during puberty.

Conclusions:

• The proposed novel growth charts and analysis of growth velocity indicators (delta SDS, %DW) facilitate early detection of abnormal growth.
• Height-based weight charts simplify growth assessment by accounting for the strong correlation between height and weight.
• The identified patterns of variation in growth indicators can be utilized in effective growth screening programs.