A longitudinal study of growth patterns in school children in Taipei area I: growth curve and height velocity curve.

摘要

BACKGROUND: It has been pointed out that longitudinal rather than cross-sectional growth standards should be used to assess individual linear growth. The purpose of this study is to investigate the growth characteristics of school boys and girls living in Shih-Pai district in Taipei. METHODS: A defined group of 1,139 healthy school children (570 boys and 569 girls) from the Shih-Pai district of Taipei city were followed longitudinally for 3 to 4 years. Anthropometric measurement of height and weight and physical development in each child were obtained. The annual increments were calculated every 6 months to map the peak height velocity (PHV), height velocity curve (HVC), peak weight velocity (PWV) and weight velocity curve (WVC). RESULTS: The age at peak velocity was taken as 12.5 years for boys and 10.5 years for girls, and the whole year PHV as 8.0 cm/yr in boys and 7.0 cm/yr in girls. The mean PHV was less than 1 cm in boys and girls of about 17 years and 15 years, respectively, with mean heights of170.8 cm and 158.7 cm, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our preliminary results were actually calculated from the combination of longitudinal data and cross-sectional data pools. Since this is only a pilot study design, we expect that a longer follow-up period of the same cohorts would give more exact growth characteristics.