July - September 2016, Volume 12, Issue 3

Pascanu I, Pop R, Barbu CG, Dumitrescu CP, Gherlan I, Marginean O, Preda C, Procopiuc C, Vulpoi C, Hermanussen M

Development of Synthetic Growth Charts for Romanian Population

Acta Endo (Buc) 2016, 12 (3): 309-318
doi: 10.4183/aeb.2016.309

There are no new national growth references for the Romanian population and the current recommendations for short stature evaluation is the use of the Swiss growth charts developed based on a longitudinal study. The aim of the present paper is to present the new synthetic growth references for Romanian children. Material and methods. We used local Romanian data from 9 studies with information on height and weight obtained between 1999 and 2016. Based on their plausibility and methodology six studies were selected for generating the National Synthetic Growth References for Romanian Children based on the specific methodology described previously. The selected studies included 8407 subjects measured in schools/kindergartens. Age is reported in years covering a range from 3-18 years. Height and weight were measured at a precision of 0.1 cm and 0.1 kg. All children were measured at normal temperature, in light clothes, without footwear. Results. We present the charts and tables with the common centiles for height, weight and body mass index for boys and girls. Conclusion. We suggest synthetic growth references based upon recent growth data from 6 different Romanian regions as new National Growth Charts for Romanian children.

Keywords: synthetic growth charts

Correspondence: Raluca Pop MD, University of Medicine and Pharmacy - Dept of Endocrinology, 38 Ghe Marinescu street, Targu Mures, 540139, Romania, E-mail: ralucapetri@yahoo.com