Growth charts for children aged 6-17 years in Shanxi, China: comparison with other cities of China, WHO and neighboring countries

Abstract

Abstract Background Growth charts are an important method for evaluating a child’s health, growth, and nutritional status. To present body mass index (BMI)-for-age references reflecting children’s growth in Shanxi. Methods A stratified cluster random sampling method was used to recruit 5461 children and adolescents aged 6–17 years. Height and weight were measured and BMI was calculated. The LMS method was used to calculate the percentile values of body mass index by gender and age. Smoothed BMI-for-age growth curves were established for both sexes and compared with reference data from other cities of China, WHO and neighboring countries. Results BMI centiles increased with age but with different patterns in both boys and girls. The centile curves from the 3rd to the 50th had a slight increase, while a sharp increase was seen from 11 to 17 years in boys and from 6 to 14 years in girls in the higher centiles. In comparison with other cities of China, the values for the 50th percentile are higher than those reported for children from China 2009, Shanghai, Changsha and China 2010 in both sexes. In comparison with WHO growth references, Chinese girls and boys had higher values in all percentiles, whereas curves of girls look roughly the same. The medians for BMI in Shanxi increase linearly from 6 to 17 years in boys. Compared to the neighboring countries, the 50th percentile curves of Japan, India and Iran are lower for boys and girls aged 5–14 than Korea, Shanxi and Pakistan. Shanxi has the highest percentile curves for girls and boys aged 12–17 compared to other neighboring countries. Conclusions The BMI percentiles of children aged 6–17 years in Shanxi differed significantly from the growth reference curves of other cities of China, WHO and neighbouring countries. Therefore, BMI curves that meet local and population-specific should be developed to assess physical growth of children, detect overweight and obese children early, and provide scientific basis for the prevention and control of overweight and obesity in children.