Implications of growth surveys in social and curative pediatrics.

The main characteristics of children are growth, development, gradually building up of resistance and decrease of vulnerability. The biometric parameters of choice for a general medical assessment of growth and (physical) development are attained height, weight for height, at infancy and pre-school age neuro-motoric development, and at adolescence the successive stages of secondary sex characteristics. In 1955, 1965, and 1980 nation-wide representative growth and development surveys were performed in the Netherlands. The results of such studies serve multiple purposes: they provide reference data for individual medical assessment, and contribute to the description of the health situation of the population by the study of secular changes. The data are also in use in the construction of our living environment and may supply a biological basis for governments policies concerning young people.