Abstract

FERNANDEZ ORTEGA, Jairo Alejandro  and  RUIZ ARIAS, Flor Alba. TRANSVERSAL STUDY ABOUT THE GROWTH IN BOGOTANOS SCHOOL CHILDREN: VALUES OF HEIGHT, WEIGHT AND BODY MASS INDEX FROM THE SEVEN TO THE EIGHTEEN. Univ. Salud [online]. 2012, vol.14, n.1, pp.21-41. ISSN 0124-7107.

Objective: This is a cross-sectional study aimed to establish the evolving size, weight, and body mass index by age and gender in 22,406 children and 23,277 girls aged between 7 and 17 from 386 official educational institutions of the capital district. Method: Weight, height and calculated body mass index (BMI) was evaluated. The age was calculated in months, and the distribution percentile, z-score value and the graphic design was done according to the LMS method. Results: The percentile curves that were constructed for the three measurements ensure a good classification of children. Sexual dimorphism is observed from the beginning of the increase in weight and size. The age presents correlations (r=0,82) with weight for both genders, (r=0,82 women r= 0,87 men) with size and (r=0,61 women r=0,47 men) with BMI. Concordances and differences are observed with other previous studies in Colombia. Conclusions: It was established how these variables evolve according to gender and age, and percentile values were created for each of them. Reference standards built with our data provide a starting point and should be supplemented with longitudinal studies. The study shows the need to perform periodically such evaluations to update the reference data and check how these variables evolve from one generation to another, and determine the secular acceleration growth.

Keywords : Child; adolescent; body weight; body height; body mass index.

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