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

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.

Association between weight at birth and body composition in childhood: A Brazilian cohort study

“…Thus, gender and adiposity should be accounted for in studies examining metabolic and cardiovascular outcomes. Similar to previous studies [35][36][37], age has also been positively associated with abdominal adiposity and fat-free mass. Despite the difference observed between the mean age of the children included in the cohort study and the children who did not conclude the study, this result probably did not affect the associations observed between age and the outcomes investigated.…”

Weight, height and body mass index of children and adolescents living at moderate altitude in Colombia

“…15 We opted for these references because they were the latest available ones and exhibited regional characteristics with similar human development indexes (HDI) in recent years.…”

Waist circumference percentile in children from municipalities of developed and developing countries

“…Bustamante et al 17 compared WC reference values of Peruvian children with other international references. The WC Peruvian children values (4-17 yrs) were lower than the ones for North-Americans and Argentinean children of all ages.They have found that WC differences between Peruvian and NorthAmerican children were of ~5.4 cm in boys and ~6.6 cm in girls, while for Peruvian and Argentinean children were it was of ~2.8 cm in boys and ~3.9 cm in girls aged between 6 and 13.…”

“…In this sense, developed [12][13][14] and developing [15][16][17][18] countries have established WC percentile reference curves for their children. Portuguese and Brazilian 6-10-year-old children do not have a percentile curves with normative parameters according to the national and international comparisons.…”