Growth curves and the international standard: How children's growth reflects challenging conditions in rural Timor‐Leste
| Autor: | Katherine Sanders, Phoebe R. Spencer, Debra S. Judge |
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| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
Adult
Male Rural Population Adolescent Timor-Leste Population Psychological intervention Developing country Anthropology Physical Young Adult 03 medical and health sciences Child Development 0302 clinical medicine Reference Values 030225 pediatrics Humans 030212 general & internal medicine Child education education.field_of_study International standard Body Weight Infant Newborn Infant Body Height Secular variation Geography Child Preschool Anthropology Scale (social sciences) Female Anatomy Rural area Body mass index Demography |
| Zdroj: | American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 165:286-298 |
| ISSN: | 1096-8644 0002-9483 |
| Popis: | Objectives Population-specific growth references are important in understanding local growth variation, especially in developing countries where child growth is poor and the need for effective health interventions is high. In this article, we use mixed longitudinal data to calculate the first growth curves for rural East Timorese children to identify where, during development, deviation from the international standards occurs. Materials and methods Over an eight-year period, 1,245 children from two ecologically distinct rural areas of Timor-Leste were measured a total of 4,904 times. We compared growth to the World Health Organization (WHO) standards using z-scores, and modeled height and weight velocity using the SuperImposition by Translation And Rotation (SITAR) method. Using the Generalized Additive Model for Location, Scale and Shape (GAMLSS) method, we created the first growth curves for rural Timorese children for height, weight and body mass index (BMI). Results Relative to the WHO standards, children show early-life growth faltering, and stunting throughout childhood and adolescence. The median height and weight for this population tracks below the WHO fifth centile. Males have poorer growth than females in both z-BMI (p = .001) and z-height-for-age (p = .018) and, unlike females, continue to grow into adulthood. Discussion This is the most comprehensive investigation to date of rural Timorese children's growth, and the growth curves created may potentially be used to identify future secular trends in growth as the country develops. We show significant deviation from the international standard that becomes most pronounced at adolescence, similar to the growth of other Asian populations. Males and females show different growth responses to challenging conditions in this population. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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