The percentile growth charts are the tool used to review the development of babies and children during their early years. These they compare the height and weight of each child with the average of the rest of the children, to know if it is growing and gaining weight in a normal way.
And although it is a measuring system that works and helps us detect possible anomalies, it is not quite perfect. Therefore, and after conducting various analyzes, researchers from the Polytechnic University of Valencia have developed a new method to assess the growth and nutritional status of children, which is more accurate than growth charts.
In collaboration with pediatricians and nutritionists from different European hospitals, researchers from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) have published in the Plos One magazine the development of this new method, which reduces the estimation error by more than 35% compared to the one currently used.
In Babies and more How and how much do children grow up? The four stages of growthAs we mentioned at the beginning, to keep track and monitor the increase in height and weight of children, Currently, the percentile growth charts and z values (or z score) are used. These tables help us assess the development of children by comparing anthropometric measures such as height and weight, with the population means for each age and sex.
However, UPV researchers comment that this system it presents important adjustment errors, which could cause that, sometimes and for certain measures, the percentiles obtained are not correct, causing pediatricians to make incorrect assessments.
According to Antonio Martínez, co-author of this research, the new method that they have developed prioritizes the nature of the observed data on the statistical adjustment. According to ABC, the UPC researchers declare that the results of this research are conclusive:
"The model we propose provides a great element of discussion for the scientific community, since we reduce the estimation error by more than 35%, and this has a direct impact on the assessment made by pediatricians at any stage of growth", says the researcher.
In Babies and more How and how much do children grow up? The four stages of growthWith this research, a more precise method has been obtained than the current growth charts by percentiles and z score for standard scores, proposed by the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), and expected to be applicable to various types of interventions, such as trials clinical, implementation of Public Health programs and new adjustments in current clinical practice guidelines.
