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Growth monitoring: testing the new guidelines

Growth monitoring: testing the new guidelines
Growth monitoring: testing the new guidelines
OBJECTIVE - To assess the impact of recent guidelines from the UK joint working party of child health surveillance recommending that all children be measured at age 5 and again between 7 and 9 years of age to determine how many normal school age children are likely to be referred for specialist assessment.
METHODS - The longitudinal data of 486 children measured by school nurses in a community setting were examined and compared with measurements made in a research setting by a single, skilled observer.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES - Number of children identified as having abnormal stature (< 0.4th or > 99.6th centile) and abnormal growth rate height standard deviation score (HSDS) change > 0.67).
RESULTS - The community survey identified seven (1.4%) children as having abnormal stature (four short, three tall), 11 (2.3%) were identified as "slow growing", and nine (1.9%) increased their HSDS by more than 0.67. These results were comparable to data collected in ideal research conditions.
CONCLUSIONS - Following the recommendations would not result in an excess number of inappropriate referrals. However, this study highlights several unresolved issues such as interobserver variability and time interval between measurements. A large scale prospective study should be considered to establish realistic and cost-effective criteria before implementation of a national screening programme.
0003-9888
318-322
Mulligan, J.
dfcb8ed3-df23-4808-a137-6e3f7503063f
Voss, L.D.
408c7851-7b90-4f19-8171-184b6fae65ae
McCaughey, E.S.
22b7c8e5-ed65-43c8-8d5d-9f2edf524504
Bailey, B.J.R.
e57fd48d-ce13-488c-a077-4ca344c5657b
Betts, P.R.
01afc4b4-b09a-49a5-938c-a582fedaa25f
Mulligan, J.
dfcb8ed3-df23-4808-a137-6e3f7503063f
Voss, L.D.
408c7851-7b90-4f19-8171-184b6fae65ae
McCaughey, E.S.
22b7c8e5-ed65-43c8-8d5d-9f2edf524504
Bailey, B.J.R.
e57fd48d-ce13-488c-a077-4ca344c5657b
Betts, P.R.
01afc4b4-b09a-49a5-938c-a582fedaa25f

Mulligan, J., Voss, L.D., McCaughey, E.S., Bailey, B.J.R. and Betts, P.R. (1998) Growth monitoring: testing the new guidelines. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 79 (4), 318-322.

Record type: Article

Abstract

OBJECTIVE - To assess the impact of recent guidelines from the UK joint working party of child health surveillance recommending that all children be measured at age 5 and again between 7 and 9 years of age to determine how many normal school age children are likely to be referred for specialist assessment.
METHODS - The longitudinal data of 486 children measured by school nurses in a community setting were examined and compared with measurements made in a research setting by a single, skilled observer.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES - Number of children identified as having abnormal stature (< 0.4th or > 99.6th centile) and abnormal growth rate height standard deviation score (HSDS) change > 0.67).
RESULTS - The community survey identified seven (1.4%) children as having abnormal stature (four short, three tall), 11 (2.3%) were identified as "slow growing", and nine (1.9%) increased their HSDS by more than 0.67. These results were comparable to data collected in ideal research conditions.
CONCLUSIONS - Following the recommendations would not result in an excess number of inappropriate referrals. However, this study highlights several unresolved issues such as interobserver variability and time interval between measurements. A large scale prospective study should be considered to establish realistic and cost-effective criteria before implementation of a national screening programme.

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More information

Published date: 1998
Organisations: Statistics

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 30029
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/30029
ISSN: 0003-9888
PURE UUID: 8b37860e-2b5f-414e-b64c-036ce0b81172

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Date deposited: 19 Mar 2007
Last modified: 08 Jan 2022 01:05

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Contributors

Author: J. Mulligan
Author: L.D. Voss
Author: E.S. McCaughey
Author: B.J.R. Bailey
Author: P.R. Betts

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