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Impact of Using Different Growth References on Interpretation of Anthropometric Parameters of Children Aged 8–15 Years

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Abstract

Objective

To compare the effect of the application of three growth references (Agarwal, 1992; Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP), 2015; and World Health Organisation (WHO), 2007) on interpretation of anthropometric parameters in schoolchildren.

Setting

Cross-sectional school-based study.

Participants

Children 8–15 years studying in one government school and one private school of Delhi.

Procedure

The age- and gender-specific standard deviation scores of height-for-age and BMI-for-age were estimated for each student enrolled, using the three growth references independently.

Main outcome measure

The proportion of children with short stature, thinness and overweight/ obesity determined by each growth reference were compared.

Results

A total of 1237 students participated in the study. A significantly higher proportion of children (both sexes) were classified to have short stature using WHO 2007 reference (8.8%) as compared to the Agarwal (3.3%) charts and IAP, 2015 references (3.6%). The combined prevalence of overweight and obesity was highest (34.8%) by the IAP, 2015 reference as against 32% by Agarwal charts and 29.1% by WHO, 2007 reference. Good agreement existed between the IAP, 2015 reference and Agarwal charts in classifying subjects into different BMI categories (Kappa=0.82) and short stature (Kappa=0.99).

Conclusions

In view of differences noted, use of national population derived reference data is suggested to correctly define growth trajectories in children.

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Funding

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Lady Hardinge Medical College and Kalawati Saran Children’s Hospital, New Delhi, 110 001, India

    Preeti Singh, Sonal Gandhi & Anju Seth

  2. Department of Delhi Cancer Registry, BR Ambedkar IRCH, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

    Rajeev Kumar Malhotra

Authors
  1. Preeti Singh
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  2. Sonal Gandhi
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  3. Rajeev Kumar Malhotra
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  4. Anju Seth
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Contributions

PS: execution of the study, data analysis and writing the manuscript; SG: execution of the study and writing the manuscript; RKM: contributed in execution of the study, data analysis and writing the manuscript and AS: conceptualized the paper, was overall responsible for quality of data collection and maintenance, modified and finalized the draft.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anju Seth.

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Competing interest

None stated.

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Singh, P., Gandhi, S., Malhotra, R.K. et al. Impact of Using Different Growth References on Interpretation of Anthropometric Parameters of Children Aged 8–15 Years. Indian Pediatr 57, 124–128 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13312-020-1728-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13312-020-1728-7

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