Skeletal maturation of Hong Kong Chinese children in the first five years of life.

This report describes the skeletal maturity during the first five years of life of 492 Chinese children in Hong Kong in a longitudinal study. Hand-wrist radiographs taken half-yearly were assessed by the Tanner-Whitehouse method and rated according to the TW1 20-bone self-weighting maturity score. Skeletal age was in advance of chronological age in both sexes, but significantly more so in females, especially between 18 months and three years. The relationship of the skeletal maturation of these children to various socioeconomic factors is discussed, including the effect of preferential child rearing in favour of males.