ArticlePloS one2015
Should the WHO growth charts be used in France?
Article in PloS one, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 73 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Digestive Tolerance and Safety of an Anti-Regurgitation Formula Containing Locust Bean Gum, Prebiotics and Postbiotics: A Real-World Study.Pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology & nutrition · 2023Article
- Paternal BMI in the preconception period, and the association with child zBMI.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2023Article
- Comparison of National Growth Standards for Turkish Infants and Children with World Health Organization Growth StandardsJournal of clinical research in pediatric endocrinology · 2022Article
- Growth charts inBone reports · 2022Article
- The legacy of a standard of normality in child nutrition research.SSM - population health · 2021Article
- Comparative study on the early growth of preterm infants with the World Health Organization growth standards and the China growth charts.Pediatrics international : official journal of the Japan Pediatric Society · 2021Article
- World Health Organization growth standards: How do Canadian children measure up?Paediatrics & child health · 2021Article
- Obesity in Pediatric-Onset Multiple Sclerosis: A French Cohort Study.Neurology(R) neuroimmunology & neuroinflammation · 2021Article
- Head circumference from birth to five years in France: New national reference charts and comparison to WHO standards.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2021Article
- Establishment of Z Score Reference of Growth Parameters for Egyptian School Children and Adolescents Aged From 5 to 19 Years: A Cross Sectional Study.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2020Article
- Article
- Association of accelerated body mass index gain with repeated measures of blood pressure in early childhood.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2019Article
- Skeletal evolution in Marfan syndrome: growth curves from a French national cohort.Pediatric research · 2018Observational
- Interpreting Neonatal Growth Parameters in Oman: Are we doing it right?Sultan Qaboos University medical journal · 2017Article
- The height-, weight- and BMI-for-age of preschool children from Nizhny Novgorod city, Russia, relative to the international growth references.BMC public health · 2016Article
- Overweight and Obesity Based on Four Reference Systems in 18,382 Paediatric Patients with Type 1 Diabetes from Germany and Austria.Journal of diabetes research · 2015Article
- Growth reference for Saudi preschool children: LMS parameters and percentiles.Annals of Saudi medicineArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
15 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundGrowth charts are an essential clinical tool for evaluating a child's health and development. The current French reference curves, published in 1979, have recently been challenged by the 2006 World Health Organization (WHO) growth charts.
objectiveTo evaluate and compare the growth of French children who were born between 1981 and 2007, with the WHO growth charts and the French reference curves currently used.
designAnthropometric measurements from French children, who participated in 12 studies, were analyzed: 82,151 measurements were available for 27,257 children in different age groups, from birth to 18 years. We calculated and graphically compared mean z-scores based on the WHO and French curves, for height, weight and Body Mass Index (BMI) according to age and sex. The prevalence of overweight using the WHO, the French and International Obesity Task Force definitions were compared.
resultsOur population of children was on average 0.5 standard deviations taller than the French reference population, from the first month of life until puberty age. Mean z-scores for height, weight and BMI were closer to zero based on the WHO growth charts than on the French references from infancy until late adolescence, except during the first six months. These differences not related to breastfeeding rates. As expected, the prevalence of overweight depended on the reference used, and differences varied according to age.
conclusionThe WHO growth charts may be appropriate for monitoring growth of French children, as the growth patterns in our large population of French children were closer to the WHO growth charts than to the French reference curves, from 6 months onwards. However, there were some limitations in the use of these WHO growth charts, and further investigation is needed.
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