Growth pattern of Tibetan infants: one-year follow-up study after birth in rural Tibet / 中华流行病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the growth pattern of rural Tibetan children in the first year after birth.Methods In rural area of Lhasa,Tibet,252 subjects were recruited and their weight,length were measured longitudinally from birth to 12th months of age.Frequency of monitoring reached 5 times in total and Ponderal index (PI) was calculated for each visit.Mixed model was used to analyze the changes of length and weight by gender after controlling for birth weight.Results Birth weight and length showed great influence on children' s growth (weightβ =-0.681 9,P＜0.000 1,lengthβ =-0.957 1,P＜0.000 1).Weight and length of Tibetan male infants at each age point were lower than WHO new standard on growth and the Reference from 2005 National Survey on growth of children in China.The gap seemed widened by time but the gap between Tibetan female infants and Chinese standard narrowed 6 months after birth.Data showed that the higher PI of Tibetan infants than that of other Chinese infants which might infer that Tibetan infants had a more solid body mass under their own height.Conclusion The growth pattern of Tibetan infants might have its own feature.Tibetan infants appeared to have had higher PI,which was contradictory to the general conclusion that poor growth and development status had been seen in Tibetan children.