Abstract
It is well known that fat children tend to be taller than their peers and to present a slight acceleration of skeletal and pubertal maturation. To verify this tendency and to examine some of the points that are still controversial, auxological data were studied concerning 303 subjects (141 males and 162 females, aged 6–16 years) affected by simple obesity. Subjects were seen to be taller than average by about 1 SD from 6 to 9 years of age, becoming close to or shorter than average at later ages. Height below the 10th percentile was common in 17% of males and 8% of females, due to hereditary shortness, growth delay or late puberty. Girls had early puberty and menarche; the rate of sexual maturation was variable in boys.
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Abbreviations
- SO:
-
simple obesity
- BMI:
-
body mass index
- GP:
-
Greulich and Pyle method
- TW2-RUS:
-
Tanner and Whitehouse method for skeletal age assessment (radius, ulna and short bones score)
- GECS:
-
growth evaluation computerized system
- G:
-
genital development
- B:
-
breast development
- PH:
-
pubic hair development
- M:
-
menarche
- SDS:
-
standard deviation scores
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Vignolo, M., Naselli, A., Di Battista, E. et al. Growth and development in simple obesity. Eur J Pediatr 147, 242–244 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00442687
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00442687