Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, California; NCIRE, Center for Imaging of Neurodegenerative Diseases, Veterans Administration Medical Center, San Francisco, California; Department of Biomedical Engineering, All Nations University College, Koforidua, Ghana.
Am J Hum Biol. 2013 Sep-Oct;25(5):666-72. doi: 10.1002/ajhb.22428. Epub 2013 Aug 10.
The purpose of this study was to assess the applicability of a simple mathematical formula for prediction of individual child linear growth. The formula describes a square root dependence of height on age with only two constants, k and C.
Retrospective serial height measurements of 137 healthy children (61 female), who attended clinic in the Pediatrics Department at the University of California, San Francisco were used. For each child, two of the initial measurements and their corresponding measurement times were used to determine the values of k and C. By substituting the determined values of k and C into the formula, the formula was then used to predict the trajectory of the child's growth.
The 137 children were comprised of 20% Hispanic, 23% African-American, 27% Caucasian and 30% Asian. The formula predicted growth trajectories of 136 out of the 137 children with minimal discrepancies between the measured data and the corresponding predicted data. The mean of the discrepancies was 0.8 cm.
Our proposed formula is very easy to use and predicts individual child growth with high precision irrespective of gender or ethnicity. The formula will be a valuable tool for studying human growth and possibly growths of other animals.
本研究旨在评估一个简单的数学公式在预测个体儿童线性生长方面的适用性。该公式描述了身高与年龄之间的平方根关系，仅由两个常数 k 和 C 决定。
使用了加利福尼亚大学旧金山分校儿科学系诊所就诊的 137 名健康儿童（61 名女性）的回顾性系列身高测量值。对于每个孩子，使用最初的两次测量值及其相应的测量时间来确定 k 和 C 的值。通过将确定的 k 和 C 值代入公式，然后使用公式预测孩子的生长轨迹。
这 137 名儿童中，20%为西班牙裔，23%为非裔美国人，27%为白种人，30%为亚洲人。该公式预测了 137 名儿童中的 136 名的生长轨迹，测量数据与相应的预测数据之间的差异最小。差异的平均值为 0.8 厘米。
我们提出的公式非常易于使用，并且可以高精度地预测个体儿童的生长，无论性别或种族如何。该公式将成为研究人类生长和其他动物生长的有价值的工具。
