BMC Public Health (Dec 2022)

Construction of a new complete growth reference for urban Chinese children

  • Wei Wu,
  • JingNan Chen,
  • MinJia Mo,
  • Shuting Si,
  • Ke Huang,
  • RuiMin Chen,
  • Mireguli Maimaiti,
  • ShaoKe Chen,
  • Chunxiu Gong,
  • Min Zhu,
  • ChunLin Wang,
  • Zhe Su,
  • Yan Liang,
  • Hui Yao,
  • HaiYan Wei,
  • RongXiu Zheng,
  • HongWei Du,
  • Yu Yang,
  • FeiHong Luo,
  • Pin Li,
  • LanWei Cui,
  • GuanPing Dong,
  • YunXian Yu,
  • Junfen Fu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14702-8
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 22, no. 1
pp. 1 – 6

Abstract

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Abstract Background Growth chart is a valuable clinical tool to monitor the growth and nutritional status of children. A growth chart widely used in China is based on the merged data sets of national surveys in 2005. We aimed to establish an up-to-date, complete growth curve for urban Chinese children and adolescents with a full range of ages. Methods Using data collected in a large-scale, cross-sectional study (Prevalence and Risk factors for Obesity and Diabetes in Youth (PRODY), 2017–2019), we analyzed 201,098 urban children aged 3 to 18 years from 11 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities that are geographically representative of China. All participants underwent physical examinations. Sex-specific percentiles of height-for-age and weight-for-age were constructed by Generalized Additive Models for Location Scale and Shape (GAMLSS) model. We also compared the median values of height-for-age or weight-for-age between our growth chart and the established growth reference using Welch-Satterthwaite T-Test. Results Consistent with the established growth reference, we observed that the P50 percentile of height-for-age reached plateaus at the age of 15 years (172 cm) and 14 years (160 cm) for boys and girls, respectively. In addition, boys aged 10 ~ 14 years and girls aged 10 ~ 12 years exhibited the most dramatic weight difference compared to those of other age groups (19.5 kg and 10.3 kg, respectively). However, our growth chart had higher median values of weight-for-age and height-for-age than the established growth reference with mean increases in weight-for-age of 1.36 kg and 1.17 kg for boys and girls, respectively, and in height-for-age of 2.9 cm and 2.6 cm for boys and girls, respectively. Conclusions Our updated growth chart can serve as a reliable reference to assess the growth and nutritional status in urban Chinese children throughout the entire childhood.

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