Height and weight of school children of Shiraz in relation to the CDC growth charts and the previous study in shiraz (15 years ago)

This study aimed at presenting the updated growth reference data for height and weight of healthy school children aged 6.5-11.5 years in Shiraz (Iran). A total of 2397 healthy school children (1268 boys,1129 girls) aged 6.5-11.5 years were sampled from four educational districts of Shiraz (Iran) using a multistage random systematic sampling scheme. Their heights and weights were measured using a SECA stadiometer and recorded to the nearest 0.1 cm and 0.1 kg, respectively. Healy-Rasbash-Yang (HRY) distribution free method was applied to estimate aged related centiles of height and weight of children. Then, they were compared with CDC (Centers for Disease Control and prevention) growth charts and the smoothed curves of the previous study in Shiraz carried out 15 years ago, when our country was faced with the imposed war of Iraq against Iran during 1980-1988. Our school children are now significantly taller and heavier for age than their peers born 15 years earlier. However, the statistical models for estimating the age-related centiles were consistent. A comparison of our data with the centers for disease control growth charts CDC 2000 shows that our height and weight medians correspond almost to the 40th centile of the latter, indicating less deficit than the previous growth study in Shiraz. The paper concludes that the CDC 2000 growth charts seem inadequate and inappropriate for our subjects and supports the previous studies findings for using local growth standards for clinical work in Iran, which should be updated periodically due to changes and developments taking place. These charts are likely to be applied in school children of urban population of Iran.