Original scientific paper
Growth Charts for Croatian School Children and Secular Trends in Past Twenty Years
Vesna Jureša
Vera Musil
Mirjana Kujundžić Tiljak
Abstract
The aim of this study was to construct new Croatian growth charts for body height and weight of boys and girls aged 6.5 to 18.5 years and to investigate differences between our and pre-existing studies. Analysis was based on a multistage stratified sample representative for school children aged 6.5 to 18.5, 6046 boys and 5656 girls. Growth reference was constructed using LMS method. Present results demonstrated an increment of body height and weight during the last two decades. Highest increase of body height is in boys aged 13–14 years 6.5 cm, in girls aged 12 years is 5.0 cm. Highest increase
of body weight is in 16 year age group of boys 8.7 kg and in 11–12 year age group of girls 5.2 kg. In conclusion, regarding presence of secular trend because previously used growth charts in Croatia are obsolete.
Keywords
growth charts; trends; children; adolescents; Croatia
Hrčak ID:
75588
URI
Publication date:
2.1.2012.
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