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Acta medica Lituanica

ISSN 1392-0138
ISSN 2029-4174 (online)

2009 m. Nr. 3-4

Growth charts in the globalizing world: a new challenge for anthropologists and paediatricians?
Sylvia KIRCHENGAST, Edith SCHOBER

Introduction. Growth references or growth charts are among the most commonly used and most valuable tools for assessing health, development and well-being of individuals, groups of children and adolescents and the communities in which they live. Beside growth charts, reference curves of the weight status or nutritional status were published for many counties and are widely used today in medical practice. The last decades, however, the complex process of globalization and the ongoing phenomenon of transnational and transcontinental migration confronted the users of established growth charts and reference curves with new problems. Is it correct to use reference curves from the originating country if such reference curves are available, or should researchers prefer national standards of the host population?
Materials and methods. Body mass index (kg/m2) data of 962 children and adolescents of Turkish origin living in Vienna were collected. Four different recommended weight status classifications were compared.
Results. The weight status classification differed significantly among the different reference chars. First of all, the reference charts according to Özer underestimated the amount of overweight and obese children and probands.
Conclusions. In Austria, where immigration of people from all over the world takes place, an adequate evaluation of health and growth of migrant children still represents an unsolved problem.

Keywords: growth charts, weight status, migration

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