ABSTRACT
Objective To develop the reference on height among children and adolescents aged 7 to 18 years of Chinese Han ethnicity in different administrative districts of China and to use this height reference for screening stunting.Results from the national screening program were compared with the WHO references.Methods Data from the Chinese National Survey on Students Constitution and Health in 2005 was used to develop the height references through LMS method.Results Differences among the references on height for children and adolescents in different districts ( Ⅰ - Ⅳ ) were remarkable.The highest was seen in the Second Districts while the lowest was seen in the First Districts among those at the age of 18,with differences as 3.18 cm for boys and 2.92 cm for girls.The heights from the inland were shorter than that of the WHO references,with the differences ranging from 0.31 cm to 5.07 cm for boys,and from 0.98 cm to 4.22 cm for girls.The prevalence rates of stunting were 2.22％,2.29％,5.25％,respectively according to local references,national references and the WHO references.Conclusion Universal height references from the whole nation could not discriminate the variations caused by geographic conditions and hereditory factors related to socio-economie situations.Height references should be developed locally,to evaluate height levels of the areas.
ABSTRACT
Objective To analyze the district differences of height among Chinese Han population aged 7 to 18 years,and to divide the levels of heights into several regions accordingly,to provide basis for evaluation the development of height in the above said population.Methods Standard Deviation was used to compare the relative lavels of height in different provinces and to divide them into several regions.The results were then showed in map through the Geographic Information System (GIS).Results All the 30 provinces in China were divided into three regions:high,medium and short regions according to the stature.Region with high stature was mainly located in northern,while medium stature was in central and northwest parts and short stature was in southwest parts of China.The differences of height appeared to be significant among regions in every age group.The differences of height were 1-3 cm between adjacent regions,and were even lager between the regions with high or short stature which appeared to be 4-5 cm.Conclusion Overall,heights among the Chinese Han children and adolescents were taller in the northern and shorter in the southern areas.The highest and lowest levels of heights were in the Northern and the Southwest areas respectively.It was observed that the levels of height in the coastal areas were higher than that of the inland.There were no absolute boundaries between different regions because of the gradual transition in the levels of heights in various districts.