Infants' growth charts for southern Iran

Local growth charts for an Iranian child population aged 2–5 years in comparison with the World Health Organization Child Growth Standards

Background

There are no national reference charts in Iran for children aged under five. This study aimed to develop representative growth reference charts of height, weight, and BMI for children aged 2–5 years in Isfahan, Iran, and to compare them with the WHO reference curves.

Results

This population-based study has a combination of longitudinal and cross-sectional design. It included 1325 and 761 healthy children, who were born between 2002 and 2015 in Isfahan, central Iran, in longitudinal and cross-sectional phases. Expert health care providers measured the height and weight of children in health centers. The lambda-mu-sigma method was used to construct the age- and sex-specific growth charts of anthropometric measures. The study sample comprised 1029 boys and 1057 girls. The centiles of height, weight, and BMI of boys were higher than that of girls in all age groups. The weight patterns of studied children were close to those of the WHO references in the lower percentiles. However, our study children, especially girls, were lighter compared with WHO standards based on the middle and upper percentiles of the weight distribution. Compared with WHO standards, boys of our study were taller especially at older ages. The percentiles of the BMI for our study samples were considerably lower than WHO standards.

Conclusion

There are differences between our local growth charts for weight, height, and BMI with WHO standards. The local growth standards could be more precise for assessing growth problems in local and national settings. Due to notable differences between our results with WHO standards, future studies are warranted for constructing nationwide growth charts.

Longitudinal standards for growth velocity of infants from birth to 4 years born in West Azerbaijan Province of northwest Iran

OBJECTIVES:

Growth velocity is an important factor to monitor for appropriate child growth. This study presents the growth velocity of infants based on length, weight, and head circumference.

METHODS:

The subjects of this study were 308 neonates (160 boys and 148 girls) born in West Azerbaijan Province of northwestern Iran who were followed from birth for 4 years. The weights and lengths of the subjects were recorded at birth, 1, 2, 4, 6, and 9 months, and 1, 1.5, 2, 3, and 4 years of age, while the head circumferences were measured just up to 1.5 years of age. In this study, the Lambda-Mu-Sigma (LMS) method using LMS Chartmaker Pro (Institute of Child Health, London, UK) was utilized to obtain growth velocity percentiles.

RESULTS:

After obtaining growth velocity charts for weight, length, and head circumference (5th, 50th, and 95th percentiles), the researchers could deduce that there was a sharp decrease in the velocity growth charts from birth to 2 years of age but these charts remained relatively stable up to 4 years for both sexes. Growth velocities for the length and weight of boys in the present sample are slightly but not significantly greater than those in girls through the first months of infancy and there was no significant difference between girls and boys up to 4 years.

CONCLUSIONS:

This paper provided the first local growth velocity standards of length, weight, and head circumference for infants by analyzing longitudinal measurements produced for West Azerbaijan Province, which should be updated periodically. It seems that there has been a significant difference between the growth velocity of infants in northwestern Iran and southern Iran within the past few years.

Growth Velocity of Infants From Birth to 5 Years Born in Maku, Iran

BACKGROUND

Growth velocity standards are essential for proper evaluation of child growth. The goal of this study was to construct weight, height and head circumference growth velocity charts for infants.

METHODS

This study includes 256 infants (124 boys and 132 girls) born in Maku, Northwest of Iran, and monitored from birth until they were 5 years. The weights and heights of the subjects were recorded at birth, one, two, four, six months and 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4 and 5 years of age, while the head circumferences were measured until they were 1.5 years old. In this study, the LMS method using LMS chart maker software, was utilized to obtain growth velocity centiles.

RESULTS

Growth velocity charts for weight, height and head circumference (5th, 50th, 95th percentiles) were obtained. The velocity growth charts decreased rapidly from birth to 2 years and then remained relatively constant up to 5 years for both sexes. The growth velocity of boys was higher than girls through the first year of age but became equal at 12 months of age and no significant difference was seen up to 5 years.

CONCLUSION

Growth velocity studies are really sparse in Iran. In this study, longitudinal data were used to obtain growth velocity centiles. Furthermore, the weight and height velocities of infants from Shiraz, southern Iran, and U.K were compared.

Child Weight Growth Chart and Its Associated Factors in Birth Cohort of Maku Using a Growth Curve Model and LMS Method

Background:

Infant growth is defined as a positive change in body size over a period of time, and is a sensitive predictor of social health. The most effective way to determine child growth is by measuring birth weight and constructing a weight growth trajectory. Many studies were conducted on the effects of different factors on birth weight, but investigations of these effects on growth trajectory are really sparse. This study analyzes longitudinal data to determine factors affecting growth trajectory and used LMS chart for comparing children.

Materials and Methods:

In a cohort study, 256 neonates born in 2004 in Maku, Iran, were recruited and were followed until 2009.The weight of the neonates were measured at 12 occasions from birth, until the age of 5 years. A growth curve model was used to determine the affecting factors. The parametric LMS method was used to construct the reference centiles curve of the weight (5th, 50th, 95th percentiles).

Findings:

The findings show that while controlling the other factors, birth region, breast feeding duration, mother’s education and infants’ gender significantly influenced the longitudinal weight rate. However, other variables did not reveal any significant association with growth. The growth charts increased rapidly from birth to 5 years of age for both sexes. It was observed that male children grew faster than females, through the first year of age up to 5 years.

Conclusion:

Although every child has a growth potential, this capacity could be influenced by various factors and can be compared with other infants through a growth chart. We used longitudinal data to obtain the risk factor of growth trajectory. LMS method was also used for description of growth. Thereafter, the weight chart of Shiraz, southern Iran’s corresponding infants, was compared.

Systematic review of birth cohort studies in South East Asia and Eastern Mediterranean regions

BACKGROUND

Few longitudinal studies of children have taken place in the developing world, despite child mortality being concentrated there. This review summarises the methodologies and main outcomes of longitudinal studies of pre-school children (0 to 59 months) in the World Health Organization's South East Asia (SEA) and Eastern Mediterranean (EM) Regions.

METHODS

A systematic search of literature using pre-defined criteria revealed 7863 papers. After application of quality criteria, 120 studies were selected for analysis.

RESULTS

The search revealed 83 studies in the SEA region and 37 in the EM region, of which 92 were community-based and 8 facility-based. Objectives were diverse but topics included growth (n = 49 studies), mortality (n = 28), nutrition (n = 24), and infectious diseases (n = 33). Only 12 studies focused on non-communicable diseases. Duration ranged from 7 to 384 months. Measurements included anthropometric (n = 56 studies), socioeconomic (n = 50) and biological sampling (n = 25), but only one study was DNA-based.

CONCLUSION

Biobanks have emerged as the most successful approach to generating knowledge about disease causes and mechanisms. Little of this is possible to undertake in the in SEA or EM regions, however. Further longitudinal studies of young children with DNA sampling should be set up to better understand determinants of diseases in low-income countries.

Height and weight of primary schoolchildren in Shiraz city, southern Iran, 2002

This paper aims at presenting updated growth reference data for height and weight of 2,397 healthy schoolchildren (1,268 boys and 1,129 girls) aged 6.5-11.5 years in Shiraz (Iran), using a multistage sampling scheme. Our schoolchildren are now significantly taller and heavier for their age than their peers born 15 years earlier. However, the statistical models for estimating age-related centiles were consistent. A comparison of our current data with Centers for Disease Control growth charts for 2000 show that our height and weight medians correspond almost to the 40th centile of the latter, indicating less of a deficit than the previous growth study in Shiraz. We conclude that it is more realistic to use local growth standards for clinical work in Iran, which should be updated periodically.

Growth velocity standards from longitudinally measured infants of age 0-2 years born in Shiraz, southern Iran

This paper presents growth velocity data for a cohort of 317 infants (164 girls and 153 boys) born in Shiraz, southern Iran, in 1996 and followed longitudinally for 2 years. The growth velocity of five anthropometric measurements (height, weight, arm, head, and chest circumferences) declined rapidly from 2 weeks to 7 months of age and less steeply thereafter for both sexes. Growth velocities for boys were higher than girls in the first months but did not differ significantly later on. However, growth velocity centiles for girls lie below those for boys throughout the age range studied. Weight velocities in the Iranian infants were significantly lower than for corresponding infants in the U.K., the Middle East, and Africa, but height velocities were generally higher.

[Immigration: indicators or growth and nutrition]

In the last few years, many immigrant and adopted children from poor countries have come to live in Spain and the number is increasing. In this article we indicate which standard references can help pediatricians to determine the nutritional status and growth of these children whose social, personal and familial histories are different from our own and sometimes unknown. In these cases application of the standard national growth charts of the receiving country is recommended.