Standards of growth and obesity for Saudi children (aged 3 -18 years) living at high altitudes.

AIM OF STUDY

To standardize the growth parameters for Saudi children aged 3-18 years living at high altitude and to investigate the appropriateness of using the National Center for Ilealth Statistics (NC(IIS) growth standards for the assessment of children's growth at this high attitude area.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS

The present study follows a cross-sectional study design. A total of 13,580 native Saudi children (7,193 boys and 6,387 girls) aged 3-18 years living in Abha City (Elevation: 3,100 meters above sea level) constituted the study's sample. All chronically and acutely ill children were excluded. The data regarding the children were obtained from the well-baby clinics at primary health care centers and nurseries, as well as primary, intermediate and secondary schools. The percentiles for the weight and height and the body mass index (BMI) were calculated separately for the boys and the girls using one-year intervals. BMI values above the 95th and below the 5th percentiles were considered as diagnostic for obesity and underweight, respectively.

RESULTS

Median values of weight and height for Saudi's children (both boys and girls) were lower than their corresponding values for children in the USA. Median values of the BMI for the Saudi's boys were almost identical to those of the USA's NCHS median values through all ages that were studied. On the other hand, the median values for the BMI were almost identical for the Saudi's and USA's girls aged 3-9 years. However, after the age of 9 years the differences in the median values for the BMI were increased progressively due to the higher values for the Saudi's girls.

CONCLUSIONS

The use of the NCHS growth standards is not appropriate for the assessment of growth of children that live in the high altitude area of Abha and further studies are needed to determine the exact impact of high altitude on the growth patterns in children.