Centile Curves and Reference Values for Height, Body Mass, Body Mass Index and Waist Circumference of Peruvian Children and Adolescents

Alcibíades Bustamante, Duarte Freitas, Huiqi Pan, Peter T. Katzmarzyk and José Maia
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Alcibíades Bustamante: National University of Education Enrique Guzmán y Valle, Av. Guzmán y Valle s/n La Cantuta-Chosica, Lima, Peru
Duarte Freitas: Department of Physical Education and Sports, University of Madeira, Colégio dos Jesuítas-Rua dos Ferreiros, Funchal 9000-082, Portugal
Huiqi Pan: MCR Centre of Epidemiology for Child Health, UCL Institute of Child Health 30 Guilford Street London WC1N 1EH, UK
Peter T. Katzmarzyk: Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University, 6400 Perkins Rd., Baton Rouge, LA 70808, USA
José Maia: CIFI2D, Kinanthropometry Lab, Faculty of Sport, University of Porto, Rua Dr. Plácido Costa 91, Porto 4200-450, Portugal

IJERPH, 2015, vol. 12, issue 3, 1-18

Abstract: This study aimed to provide height, body mass, BMI and waist circumference (WC) growth centile charts for school-children, aged 4–17 years, from central Peru, and to compare Peruvian data with North-American and Argentinean references. The sample consisted of 8753 children and adolescents (4130 boys and 4623 girls) aged 4 to 17 years, from four Peruvian cities: Barranco, La Merced, San Ramón and Junín. Height, body mass and WC were measured according to standardized techniques. Centile curves for height, body mass, BMI and WC were obtained separately for boys and girls using the LMS method. Student t-tests were used to compare mean values. Overall boys have higher median heights than girls, and the 50th percentile for body mass increases curvilinearly from 4 years of age onwards. In boys, the BMI and WC 50th percentiles increase linearly and in girls, the increase presents a curvilinear pattern. Peruvian children are shorter, lighter and have higher BMI than their counterparts in the U.S. and Argentina; in contrast, age and sex-specific WC values are lower. Height, body mass and WC of Peruvian children increased with age and variability was higher at older ages. The growth patterns for height, body mass, BMI and WC among Peruvian children were similar to those observed in North-American and Argentinean peers.

Keywords: centile curves; reference values; schoolchildren (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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