%0 Journal Article
%T Construction of a new complete growth reference for urban Chinese children.
%A Wu W
%A Chen J
%A Mo M
%A Si S
%A Huang K
%A Chen R
%A Maimaiti M
%A Chen S
%A Gong C
%A Zhu M
%A Wang C
%A Su Z
%A Liang Y
%A Yao H
%A Wei H
%A Zheng R
%A Du H
%A Yang Y
%A Luo F
%A Li P
%A Cui L
%A Dong G
%A Yu Y
%A Fu J
%J BMC Public Health
%V 22
%N 1
%D 12 2022 14
%M 36517789
%F 4.135
%R 10.1186/s12889-022-14702-8
%X Growth chart is a valuable clinical tool to monitor the growth and nutritional status of children. A growth chart widely used in China is based on the merged data sets of national surveys in 2005. We aimed to establish an up-to-date, complete growth curve for urban Chinese children and adolescents with a full range of ages.<BR>Using data collected in a large-scale, cross-sectional study (Prevalence and Risk factors for Obesity and Diabetes in Youth (PRODY), 2017-2019), we analyzed 201,098 urban children aged 3 to 18 years from 11 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities that are geographically representative of China. All participants underwent physical examinations. Sex-specific percentiles of height-for-age and weight-for-age were constructed by Generalized Additive Models for Location Scale and Shape (GAMLSS) model. We also compared the median values of height-for-age or weight-for-age between our growth chart and the established growth reference using Welch-Satterthwaite T-Test.<BR>Consistent with the established growth reference, we observed that the P50 percentile of height-for-age reached plateaus at the age of 15 years (172 cm) and 14 years (160 cm) for boys and girls, respectively. In addition, boys aged 10 ~ 14 years and girls aged 10 ~ 12 years exhibited the most dramatic weight difference compared to those of other age groups (19.5 kg and 10.3 kg, respectively). However, our growth chart had higher median values of weight-for-age and height-for-age than the established growth reference with mean increases in weight-for-age of 1.36 kg and 1.17 kg for boys and girls, respectively, and in height-for-age of 2.9 cm and 2.6 cm for boys and girls, respectively.<BR>Our updated growth chart can serve as a reliable reference to assess the growth and nutritional status in urban Chinese children throughout the entire childhood.