Height and weight percentile curves of Beijing children and adolescents 0-18 years, 1995

Abstract

Nationwide growth survey has been performed once every 10 years in Mainland China since 1975. However, no percentile growth curves for children from birth to 18 years have ever been constructed for clinical use. The third survey was performed in 1995 and from this survey, data of the Beijing population were retrieved to construct the height for age and weight for age percentile curves. A total of 12218 healthy children were examined for height and weight, using the standardized methods. Height, but not weight, was normally distributed. Smoothing was performed separately for each sex, using JPA2 model for mean height for age> 2 years. Otherwise, smoothing was performed for the following curves by polynomial equations up to the order of the 5th degree for height and 12th degree for weight, mean height for age< 2 years, SD curve of height for age from birth to 18 years, median weight for age< 2 years, median weight for age> 2 years, differences between the 3rd, 10th, 25th, 75th, 90th, 97th centiles and the median for age from birth to 18 years. The predicted adult height was 173.43cm for boys and 160.86cm for girls, with age of peak velocity at 13 years and 11.5 years for boys and girls respectively. Compared to those in Hong Kong, they were 2.3-2.5cm taller signifying a geographical difference in growth even within one country. Compared to the Beijing data collected in 1975 and 1985 the secular changes in growth were more obvious in the first decade, suggesting that the Beijing population was approaching the optimal adult height.