The dilemma of misclassifying weight in short and in historic population
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52905/hbph2021.3.28Keywords:
growth standards, growth references, body mass index, nutritional statusAbstract
Background: Clinicians often refer anthropometric measures of a child to so-called “growth standards” and “growth references. Over 140 countries have meanwhile adopted WHO growth standards.
Objectives: The present study was conducted to thoroughly examine the idea of growth standards as a common yardstick for all populations. Weight depends on height. We became interested in whether also weight-for-height depends on height. First, we studied the age-group effect on weight-for-height. Thereafter, we tested the applicability of weight-for-height references in short and in historic populations.
Sample and Methods: We analyzed body height and body weight and weight-for-height of 3795 healthy boys and 3726 healthy girls aged 2 to 5 years measured in East-Germany between 1986 and 1990.
We chose contemporary height and weight charts from Germany, the UK, and the WHO growth chart and compared these with three geographically commensurable growth charts from the end of the 19th century.
Results: We analyzed body height and body weight and weight-for-height of 3795 healthy boys and 3726 healthy girls aged 2 to 5 years measured in East-Germany between 1986 and 1990.
We chose contemporary height and weight charts from Germany, the UK, and the WHO growth chart and compared these with three geographically commensurable growth charts of the end of the 19th century.
Conclusion: Weight-for-height depends on age and sex and apart from the nutritional state, reflects body proportion and body built particularly during infancy and early childhood. Populations with a relatively short average height are prone to high values of weight-for-height for arithmetic reasons independent of the nutritional state.
References
Bowditch, H. P. (1877). Growth of children: Eightth annual report of the State Board of Health of Massuchusetts. Boston.
Camerer, W. (1893). Untersuchungen über Massenwachstum und Längenwachstum der Kinder. Jahrbuch der Kinderheilkunde Neue Folge 36, 249–293.
CDC (2001). Data Table of Weight-for-stature Charts 2001. Available online at https://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts/html_charts/wtstat.htm#females (accessed 1/7/2022).
Cole, T. J./Lobstein, T. (2012). Extended international (IOTF) body mass index cut-offs for thinness, overweight and obesity. Pediatric obesity 7 (4), 284–294. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2047-6310.2012.00064.x.
Freeman, J. V./Cole, T. J./Chinn, S./Jones, P. R./White, E. M./Preece, M. A. (1995). Cross sectional stature and weight reference curves for the UK, 1990. Archives of disease in childhood 73 (1), 17–24. https://doi.org/10.1136/adc.73.1.17.
Greil, H. (1988). Der Körperbau im Erwachsenenalter. Berlin, Humboldt-University.
Hermanussen, M./Bogin, B./Scheffler, C. (2018). Stunting, starvation and refeeding: a review of forgotten 19th and early 20th century literature. Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992) 107 (7), 1166–1176. https://doi.org/10.1111/apa.14311.
Hermanussen, M./Novine, M./Scheffler, C./Groth, D. (2022). The arithmetic dilemma when defining thinness, overweight and obesity in stunted populations. Human Biology and Public Health in print.
Kuczmarski, R. J./Ogden, C. L./Guo, S. S./Grummer-Strawn, L./Flegal, K. M./Mei, Z./Wei, R./Curtin, L. R./Roche, A. F./Johnson, C. L. (2002). 2000 CDC Growth Charts for the United States: methods and development. Vital and health statistics. Series 11, Data from the National Health Survey (246), 1–190.
Mumm, R./Godina, E./Koziel, S./Musalek, M./Sedlak, P./Wittwer-Backofen, U./Hesse, V./Dasgupta, P./Henneberg, M./Scheffler, Ch. (2018). External skeletal robusticity of children and adolescents - European references from birth to adulthood and international comparisons. Anthropologischer Anzeiger; Bericht uber die biologisch-anthropologische Literatur 74 (5), 383–391. https://doi.org/10.1127/anthranz/2018/0826.
Mumm, R./Hermanussen, M. (2021). A short note on the BMI and on secular changes in BMI. Human Biology and Public Health 2. https://doi.org/10.52905/hbph.v2.17.
Neuhauser, H./Schienkiewitz, A./Schaffrath-Rosario, A./Dortschy, R./Kurth, B.-M. (2013). Referenzperzentile für anthropometrische Maßzahlen und Blutdruck aus der Studie zur Gesundheit von Kindern und Jugendlichen in Deutschland (KiGGS) 2013.
Nutrition Landscape Information System (2022). Moderate and severe thinness, underweight, overweight and obesity 2022. Available online at https://apps.who.int/nutrition/landscape/help.aspx?menu=0&helpid=392&lang=EN(accessed 1/7/2022).
R Core Team (2021). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna, Austria.
Scheffler, Ch./Hermanussen, M. (2021). Stunting is the natural condition of human height. American Journal of Human Biology, e23693. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.23693.
Schüler, G. (2009). Potsdamer Längsschnittstudie Beurteilung der körperlichen Entwicklung vom Kleinkindalter bis zum frühen Schulalter mit Hilfe von Somatometrie, Fotogrammetrie und Morphognose. Dissertation. Potsdam, Universität Potsdam. Available online at http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/oclc/624569818.
Waterlow, J. C. (1973). Note on the assessment and classification of protein-energy malnutrition in children. The Lancet 302 (7820), 87–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(73)93276-5.
Weissenberg, D. (1911). Das Wachstum des Menschen nach Alter, Geschlecht und Rasse. (The growth of man according to age, sex and race): Studien und Forschungen zur Menschen- und Völkerkunde. Stuttgart, Strecker & Schröder.
WHO (2006). WHO Child Growth Standards - Length/Height-for-age, Weight-for-age, Weight-for-length, Weight-for-height and Body Mass Index-for age: Methods and Development. Geneva, World Health Organization.
Zorlu, G. (2011). New WHO child growth standards catch on. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 89 (4), 250–251. https://doi.org/10.2471/BLT.11.040411.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Rebekka Mumm, Michael Hermanussen
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
