Formulas expressing relationship among age, height and weight, and percentile in Saudi and US children aged 6-16 years.

A microcomputer program in BASIC for predicting percentile of height and weight by age for Saudi and US children aged 6-16 years is designed. The formulas used in this program are derived from the data reported by Magbool et al. (Ann Saudi Med 13 (1993) 344-349) and the data of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Magbool et al. reported measurements of height and weight of 21,638 Saudi boys and girls aged 6-16 years from the Eastern Province. A mathematical model and a computer program previously published by the author are employed in this study. Analysis of the computer-assisted, predicted values and the data reported by Magbool et al. (Saudi) and the NCHS (USA) indicates that the program is accurate and reliable with a close agreement in expressing percentile as a function of age and height or weight. The computer-assisted predictive formulas can determine the relationship among the age, the height and weight, and the percentile, and as a supplement to the clinically useful reference standards of the tables and figures of Magbool et al. and the NCHS may be of value for growth evaluation of Saudi and US children.