Pediatr Gastroenterol Hepatol Nutr.  2013 Sep;16(3):137-142. 10.5223/pghn.2013.16.3.137.

Reappraisal of Regional Growth Charts in the Era of WHO Growth Standards

• Moon JS

• KMID: 2051326
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5223/pghn.2013.16.3.137

Abstract

After the WHO Growth Standards (WHOGS) was published in 2006, many countries in the world endorsed and adopted the new growth references as a standard measure for the growth of infants and young children. Certainly, the WHOGS has an impact on the global policy about obesity and underweight in children. Such WHOGS innovation has influenced many regional health authorities and academies, which have managed their own growth charts for a long time, in changing their strategies to develop and use regional growth charts. In Korea, along with the tradition to create a national growth chart every decade, we now face a new era of advancing with the WHOGS.

Keyword

World Health Organization Growth Standards; Growth charts; Obesity; Underweight; Korea

MeSH Terms

Academies and Institutes
Child
Growth Charts
Humans
Infant
Korea
Obesity
Thinness

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1 Plotted mean height from 6 to 20 years showed pronounced changes from 1965 to 1997 (boys in [A], girls in [B]). This pattern of secular change has varied. There was almost no change from 1997 to 2010. In mid adolescents, growth acceleration in puberty appeared rapid during the decades. Adapted from Moon (Korean J Pediatr 2011;54:436-42) with permission [13].

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  Fig. 2 The latest Korean growth charts was published in 2007. Two selected charts for children above 2 years old are as above. Adapted from Moon et al. (Korean J Pediatr 2008;51:1-25) with permission [12].

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