Abstract
Subjects: The study (grant IGA Mof H grant No. NS 9974, 4/2008) utilized the 2006 WHO Child Growth Standards and the 1991 Czech growth references. The WHO standards were based on a longitudinal study of 882 children aged 0-24 months and on cross-sectional studies of 6,669 children aged 18-71 months. The 1991 Czech growth references were based on a cross-sectional survey including 90,910 children aged 0-18 years (4,164 were children < 5 years).
Methods: The overall ratio of wasting in the sample of Czech children from the 1991 survey was calculated using the WHO Anthro software (version 2) and the WHO criteria for wasting.
Results: The prevalence of wasting was significantly higher among Czech children when using the WHO growth standards compared to the Czech references. The prevalence of wasting among 0-5 month old children was 15.5 % among boys and 12.9 % among girls compared to the expected 2.3% of the WHO standards.
Conclusions: The application of the WHO growth standards may results in a significant increase in the prevalence of wasting among Czech children, especially among infants aged 0-5 months. The performance and potential impacts of the WHO child growth standards should be evaluated further before their adoption in the Czech Republic and other countries with local growth references.
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Vignerova, J., Riedlova, J., Paulova, M. et al. 1031 A Comparison of the Who Child Growth Standards and the Czech Growth References: Prevalence of Wasting Among Infants. Pediatr Res 68 (Suppl 1), 512–513 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-201011001-01031
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-201011001-01031
