Weight-for-height of children in Iran.

Weight and height data were obtained from the 1990-1992 National Health Survey, a random cluster sample survey of 1 in 1000 families in Iran. Weight-for-height centiles of children and adolescents aged 2 to 18 in Tehran have been computed from relationships between weight for age and height for age Z-scores. The resulting centiles are compared to weight-for-height centiles based on BMI (weight/height2) charts. Investigation of the data points age by age revealed that there are very few observations between the two sets of 3rd and 97th centiles, so that the normal range of BMI for age is effectively equivalent to the normal range of weight-for-height by age. Further analysis shows that BMI charts based on the subset of children living in urban Tehran may be reliably used for all children in Iran to determine the normal range of weight-for-height except for short children aged 2 to 5 for whom a table of the upper centiles is given.