Growth survey of schoolchildren in Akita Prefecture: preliminary report

This report presents the results of a preliminary epidemiological study of growth in Akita prefecture. Data were collected from 5672 pupils from nine elementary schools in the region. Previous epidemiological investigations of growth have set the screening standard for growth retardation at -2.58 SD below the mean. On the basis of this figure it was estimated that 22 out of the 5672 pupils screened in this preliminary study (0.39%) would suffer from growth retardation. When this standard is applied to all 102,193 elementary school students in Akita prefecture, 396 children in the region are estimated to be growth retarded. An epidemiological investigation in Niigata prefecture in 1985 found that 10.5% of growth-retarded patients suffered from growth hormone deficiency. While this percentage is known to vary between different studies and with different methods of statistical analysis, application of this rate to the estimated number of 396 growth-retarded patients in Akita prefecture suggests that there may be 41 or 42 patients with growth hormone deficiency.