Physical measurements of Chinese children in Hong Kong—A pilot study in preschools and kindergartens

Abstract

Normal growth is essential to a developing child. Most syndromes with dysmorphic features demonstrate recognizable patterns of disproportionate growth, thus physical measurements are an important aspect of patient evaluation. Delineating the abnormal growth pattern depends greatly on the accuracy of the normal range. However, the currently available reference data are restricted in terms of ethnicity and geographical location, hence may not be applicable to all children worldwide. In Hong Kong, reference data are limited only to the neonatal period. The aim of our pilot study is to obtain a set of region-specific physical measurement data for Chinese children in Hong Kong. Two to six year olds were recruited from preschools and kindergartens in different regions of Hong Kong. Twenty-six parameters found in previous publications were measured with minor modifications. Three medical personnel trained by a clinical geneticist obtained these parameters. Satisfactory inter-rater reliability was achieved in a training cohort prior to the study. Raw measurement data collected were normalized and fitted into growth curves modeled by LMS method. We recruited 448 children (55.6% male) between 2 and 6 years old from five preschools and kindergartens. Growth curves with essential percentile lines were drawn. Significant differences were identified in 11 parameters when compared with Caucasian children, including canthal distances and facial width/height. Our current pilot study presents the first local- and ethnicity-specific data on physical measurements of 2-6 year olds. Our findings highlighted the substantial ethnic variability in physical measurements and the need for an ethnic-specific reference for Chinese children. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.