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New reference centiles for boys' height, weight and body mass index used voice break as the marker of biological age
Author(s) -
Mumm Rebekka,
Hermanussen Michael,
Scheffler Christiane
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
acta paediatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/apa.13488
Subject(s) - underweight , overweight , body mass index , medicine , demography , body height , body weight , pediatrics , sociology
Aim We aimed to develop the first references for body height, body weight and body mass index ( BMI ) for boys based on the individual developmental tempo with respect to their voice break status. Methods We re‐analysed data from the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (Ki GGS study) on body height, body weight and body mass index based on the voice break, or mutation, in 3956 boys aged 10–17 years. We used the LMS method to construct smoothed references centiles for the studied variables in premutational, mutational and postmutational boys. Results Body height, body weight and BMI differed significantly (p < 0.001) between the different stages of voice break. On average, boys were 5.9 cm taller, 5.8 kg heavier and had a 0.7 kg/m² higher BMI with every higher stage of voice break. Currently used growth references for chronological age in comparison with maturity‐related references led to an average of 5.4% of boys being falsely classified as overweight. Conclusion These newly developed growth references allowed convenient classifications of underweight and overweight or obese boys with respect to their voice break status. They should be added to currently used references centiles for the body mass index to avoid misclassifying boys' weight.