Premium
Guideline for referring short or tall children in preventive child health care
Author(s) -
Dommelen Paula,
Zoonen Renate,
Vlasblom Eline,
Wit Jan M.,
Beltman Maaike
Publication year - 2021
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.15625
Subject(s) - guideline , medicine , pediatrics , referral , short stature , cohort , idiopathic short stature , health care , physical examination , tall stature , family medicine , surgery , growth hormone , pathology , hormone , economics , economic growth
Aim To develop a guideline for preventive child healthcare professionals in order to improve early detection of pathological disorders associated with short stature (or growth faltering) or tall stature (or accelerated growth). Methods We updated the previous Dutch guideline for short stature in children aged 0‐9 years and extended it to adolescents (10‐17 years), and added a guideline for tall stature, based on literature and input from an expert committee. Specificities were calculated in a cohort of healthy Dutch children aged 0‐9 years (n = 970). We investigated the impact of a late onset of puberty on height standard deviation score based on the Dutch growth charts. Results Growth parameters of the guideline include height, the distance between height and target height and change of height over time. Other parameters include diagnostic clues from medical history and physical examination, for example behavioural problems, precocious or delayed puberty, body disproportion and dysmorphic features. Conclusion Preventive child healthcare professionals now have an updated guideline for referring short or tall children to specialist care. Further research is needed on the diagnostic yield after referral and specificity at field level.