A Study on Pattern of Growth in Height Among Children of Dhulikhel Municipality

Abstract

Introduction: Growth reference charts are essential to assess appropriate growth of individual children. The height of an individual is the most widely accepted method for the evaluation of growth of the children. The child's height is primarily determined by the length of his/her bones, and thus the children become tall because their bones grow in length. The purpose of the present study was to develop the mean height reference charts for school going children residing in Dhulikhel and to evolve an easily applied formula to assess the height of the children at different age groups.

Material and Methods: The present study consisted of 1726 healthy school going children (945 boys and 781 girls) aged 3-16 years, from different Schools of Dhulikhel Municipality during July – December 2015. Age was recorded in year and height of each child was measured cross-sectionally in centimeter and statistical analysis was done.

Results: It has been observed that there was a progressively increasing trend in the mean values of the height with advancement of age in both sexes. The study revealed that the adolescent growth spurt or highest peak velocity of girls (11-12 years) was attained earlier by one year than boys (12-13 years).

Conclusions: If a child’s height is consistently or substantially different from the height of other children of the same age and gender, it indicates that the child may have a medical problem and requires monitoring or treatment. The trend of physical growth as observed in height may be expected to serve as the growth standards of Dhulikhel’s children.

J Nepal Paediatr Soc 2015;35(3):209-217