Polish 2010 growth references for school-aged children and adolescents

Abstract

Growth references are useful in monitoring a child's growth, which is an essential part of child care. The aim of this paper was to provide updated growth references for Polish school-aged children and adolescents and show the prevalence of overweight and obesity among them. Growth references for height, weight, and body mass index (BMI) were constructed with the lambda, mu, sigma (LMS) method using data from a recent, large, population-representative sample of school-aged children and adolescents in Poland (n = 17,573). The prevalence of overweight and obesity according to the International Obesity Taskforce definition was determined with the use of LMSGrowth software. Updated growth references for Polish school-aged children and adolescents were compared with Polish growth references from the 1980s, the Warsaw 1996-1999 reference, German, and 2000 CDC references. A positive secular trend in height was observed in children and adolescents from 7 to 15 years of age. A significant shift of the upper tail of the BMI distribution occurred, especially in Polish boys at younger ages. The prevalence of overweight or obesity was 18.7% and 14.1% in school-aged boys and girls, respectively. The presented height, weight, and BMI references are based on a current, nationally representative sample of Polish children and adolescents without known disorders affecting growth. Changes in the body size of children and adolescents over the last three decades suggest an influence of the changing economical situation on anthropometric indices.

Fig. 1

Comparison of selected centiles of four height references. PL2010 reported OLAF study height references, PL1996–99 Warsaw height references [24], Germany height references for German children and adolescents [18], 2000CDC height references of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [19]

Fig. 2

Comparison of selected centiles of four weight references. PL2010 reported OLAF study weight references, PL1996–99 Warsaw weight references [24], Germany weight references for German children and adolescents [18], 2000CDC weight references of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [19]

Fig. 3

Comparison of selected centiles of four BMI references. PL2010 reported OLAF study BMI references, PL1996–99 Warsaw BMI references [24], Germany BMI references for German children and adolescents [18], 2000CDC BMI references of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [19]