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Measuring catch-up growth in malnourished populations
1University of Sussex, Department of Economics , Brighton BN1 9RH , UK.
Annals of Human Biology
|September 12, 2013
Summary
Catch-up growth after early childhood is possible, especially during puberty. This study demonstrates that common regression methods are uninformative for measuring catch-up growth potential.
Area of Science:
- Human Growth and Development
- Biostatistics
- Pediatric Health
Background:
- Recent studies often use flawed regression techniques to assess catch-up growth.
- These methods, regressing adult height on early childhood height, are statistically uninformative.
Purpose of the Study:
- To demonstrate the limitations of current regression-based methods for measuring catch-up growth.
- To provide new empirical evidence on pubertal catch-up growth using longitudinal data.
Main Methods:
- Utilized the 1970 British Cohort Study to illustrate methodological flaws.
- Employed longitudinal data from the Kagera Health and Development survey (540 children) for empirical analysis.
- Measured catch-up growth as the change in height-for-age z-score (HAZ) over time.
Main Results:
- The mean HAZ-score improved from -1.86 in early childhood to -1.20 in adulthood.
- Catch-up growth prevented adult heights from being 4.5-5 cm shorter.
- Graphical analysis indicated that most catch-up growth occurs during puberty.
Conclusions:
- Catch-up growth is achievable following early childhood.
- Puberty represents a critical window for height recovery and growth.
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