Clinical Longitudinal Standards For Height, Weight, Height Velocity, Weight Velocity, And Stages Of Puberty
Growth standards based only on cross-sectional survey data are different in form from standards which represent individual longitudinal curves of growth. The two are not interchangeable over the ages at which the adolescent growth spurt may occur, that is from about 7 years onwards in girls and 9 years onwards in boys. The difference is particularly marked in standards for growth velocity. The longitudinal-type standards are those which should be used in following the individual child, whether in the paediatric or adolescent clinic or as a routine monitoring procedure in healthy children. The cross-sectional values are the appropriate ones to use in making comparisons between population groups each studied only in cross-sectional surveys. They give misleading assessments for children followed individually due to the distortion introduced by some children having their adolescent growth spurt early and others late. Mixed longitudinal and cross-sectional data require a more sophisticated combination of these two approaches (Tanner, 1951). pproaches (Tanner, 1951). When we first introduced longitudinal-type standards for clinical use...