Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (INICSA-UNC-CONICET), Córdoba, Argentina.
Escuela de Nutrición, Facultad de Ciencias Médicas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina.
Am J Hum Biol. 2020 May;32(3):e23366. doi: 10.1002/ajhb.23366. Epub 2019 Nov 30.
Measurement of height is essential in the anthropometric assessment of growth and nutritional status. In some conditions, height measurement may be difficult or impossible. Proxy measurement such as knee height (KH) have been proposed to predict stature in such cases, but reference percentile ranges and charts for healthy, well-nourished children are currently unavailable. This study was designed to develop sex-specific KH reference percentile ranges and charts in Argentine children ranging from 2 to 18 years of age.
We collected and analyzed cross-sectional data for KH from 861 Argentine children and adolescents aged 2 to 18 years. Generalized additive models for location, scale, and shape were used to calculate semiparametric smoothed percentile reference ranges, and charts by age and sex. Linear regression and correlation analyses were performed to know the association between KH and height.
The new reference ranges show that KH growth rose sharply until puberty. Peak KH velocity occurs 1 year earlier than peak height velocity. At puberty KH growth decelerated rapidly in females and increased slightly until 15 years and plateaued at this age, while it had a more gradual deceleration in males up to 11 years old, later increased slightly until 17 years and plateaued at this age. The correlation coefficient between height and KH was r = 0.98 for both sexes (p < .001).
The new reference percentile ranges for KH measures for healthy children and adolescents provide a useful growth and nutritional assessment tool in a wide variety of settings. KH has a strong agreement with stature.
身高测量在生长和营养状况的人体测量评估中至关重要。在某些情况下，身高测量可能会变得困难或不可能。在这种情况下，已经提出了使用替代测量方法（如膝关节高度[KH]）来预测身高，但目前还没有针对健康、营养良好的儿童的参考百分位范围和图表。本研究旨在为 2 至 18 岁的阿根廷儿童制定性别特异性 KH 参考百分位范围和图表。
我们收集并分析了 861 名 2 至 18 岁的阿根廷儿童和青少年的 KH 横断面数据。使用位置、规模和形状的广义加性模型来计算年龄和性别的半参数平滑百分位参考范围和图表。进行线性回归和相关性分析以了解 KH 与身高之间的关联。
新的参考范围表明，KH 生长在青春期前迅速上升。峰值 KH 速度比峰值身高速度早 1 年出现。在青春期，女性的 KH 生长迅速减速，而男性直到 11 岁才逐渐减速，之后直到 17 岁才略有增加并在此年龄达到平台期。身高和 KH 之间的相关系数为 r = 0.98（男女均为 p < 0.001）。
为健康的儿童和青少年提供的新的 KH 测量参考百分位范围为各种环境提供了有用的生长和营养评估工具。KH 与身高具有很强的一致性。
