The 2022 Pakistani references from birth to 60 months for length/height, weight and body mass index

Area of Science:

• Pediatric anthropometry
• Growth monitoring
• Public health

Background:

• Accurate anthropometric reference data is crucial for assessing child growth and nutritional status.
• Existing growth charts may not accurately reflect the growth patterns of Pakistani children.
• The need for localized growth references to identify deviations from normal development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish age- and sex-specific anthropometric reference growth curves for Pakistani children.
• To provide reference charts for weight-for-age, length/height-for-age, and BMI-for-age.
• To serve as a baseline for future studies on child growth in Pakistan.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study collected weight and height data from 60,595 Pakistani children (1-60 months).
• Growth reference charts were constructed using the Generalized Additive Model for Location, Scale and Shape (GAMLSS).
• The Box-Cox power exponential distribution was employed for data modeling.

Main Results:

• Smoothed percentile values (3rd to 97th) for weight, length/height, and BMI were generated for boys and girls.
• Median percentiles for all indicators showed an increase with age in both sexes.
• Pakistani children's median percentiles were found to be lower than WHO 2006 standards.

Conclusions:

• This study presents the first anthropometric reference growth curves for Pakistani children aged 1-60 months.
• These references are essential for accurate growth assessment and nutritional status evaluation.
• The data can serve as a baseline for monitoring secular growth trends in the Pakistani population.