OBJECTIVES To investigate the prevalence of overweight and obesity among our pediatric population and observe whether the use of different growth references for classification produce significant differences. MATERIAL AND METHODS A total of 35824 boys and girls aged between 2 and 14 years were included. Body mass index (BMI) was used to calculate the prevalence of overweight-obesity by age an...

OBJECTIVE Height- and weight-based anthropometric indicators are used worldwide to characterize the nutritional status of populations. Based on the 1978 WHO/National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) growth reference, the World Health Organization has previously indicated that the standard deviation (SD) of Z-scores of these indicators is relatively constant across populations, irrespective o...

BACKGROUND Healthy growth in utero and after birth is fundamental for lifelong health and wellbeing. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently published standards for healthy growth from birth to 6 years of age; analogous standards for healthy fetal growth are not currently available. Current fetal growth charts in use are not true standards, since they are based on cross-sectional measureme...

The type of growth chart now bcoming widely used in developing countries is described; its objectives differ from those of the charts used by paediatricians in industrialized countries. Alternative weight standards to the Harvard have been suggested by a WHO Working Party and adopted for the chart described here. The--3 and --4 standard deviations from these standards are also available printed...

The recent publication of fetal growth and gestational age-specific growth standards by the International Fetal and Newborn Growth Consortium for the 21st Century Project and the previous publication by the WHO of infant and young child growth standards based on the WHO Multicentre Growth Reference Study enable evaluations of growth from ∼9 wk gestation to 5 y. The most important features of th...