Child Growth Curves in High-Altitude Ladakh: Results from a Cohort Study.
Int J Environ Res Public Health
; 17(10)2020 05 22.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-32455978
ABSTRACT
High prevalence of child underweight and stunting in high-altitude areas has often been reported. However, most previous studies on this topic were cross-sectional. Another critical concern is that using the World Health Organization (WHO) Child Growth Standards to evaluate child growth in high-altitude areas may lead to overestimations of underweight and stunting. Our study aimed to evaluate the long-term growth pattern of children (3 to 18 years) above the altitude of 3500 m in Ladakh, India. The participants' body weight (BW), body height (BH), and body mass index (BMI) were measured annually according to the WHO Child Growth Standards for children under 5 years old and the WHO reference data for children aged 5 to 19 years. The generalized estimating equation (GEE) was used to estimate the means and z-scores of BW, BH, and BMI at different ages. A total of 401 children were enrolled from 2012 to 2018. Their mean z-scores of BW, BH, and BMI were -1.47, -1.44, and -0.85 in 2012 and increased to -0.74, -0.92, and -0.63 in 2018. This population's specific growth curve was also depicted, which generally fell below the 85th percentile of the WHO standards. This is the first cohort study about long-term child growth patterns in a high-altitude area. The detailed underlying mechanisms of our findings need future research on more representative data of high-altitude populations.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Body Height
/
Body Weight
/
Child Development
/
Altitude
Type of study:
Etiology_studies
/
Incidence_studies
/
Observational_studies
/
Prevalence_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Child
/
Child, preschool
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
En
Journal:
Int J Environ Res Public Health
Year:
2020
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Taiwan