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The Height-Weight Watch Measure of Pubertal Growth
01-Jul-2019
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By Meghana
Sudden and rapid growth at puberty affects adolescent life at several levels, impacting physical, mental, psychological, social and even political belief systems. More importantly, puberty is often a very unpredictable phase. A new deep dive study has led to deeper insight into growth processes in this phase of life and could result in development of a mathematical model, that allows more certainty.
Entering puberty is viewed as a phase filled with too many variables to be predictable. However, new methods to arrive at newer findings have enabled a better picture to emerge on how children and adolescents grow up, particularly during puberty.
“Growth reflects the health status and can be a diagnostic indicator, capable of discovering both disease and psychological problems. Measuring and monitoring change in height and weight dynamics of a child is therefore one of the most important tasks for child health centers as well as school health services,” says Anton Holmgren, a pediatrician from Sweden.
While working on his PhD thesis, Holmgren got involved in developing a new mathematical growth model that can, in more detail than before, describe height-trend variations in children and adolescents, especially during puberty.
Holmgren has also specifically studied how the Body Mass Index (BMI) during childhood can be linked to height gain. The data of his study comprised the height and weight data of 1,901 subjects during their childhood.
A high BMI early in life was found to be generally associated with a greater proportion of height gain before puberty. The actual spurt was then smaller besides, puberty occurred earlier.
In the category of children with lower BMI with a later onset of puberty, the spurt was much stronger. Those whose puberty was delayed also had several extra years to grow in, and quite simply ended up taller. All these results were found at a broader group level and not while studying separate individuals.
“The smallest pubertal spurt was in the group of children with the highest BMI in childhood — a result that not only no previous study has shown before but also, confirms many pediatricians’ clinical experiences,” Holmgren says.
The findings help to make pubertal growth, more clearly predictable. This improvement in predictability makes it easier to distinguish between various growth processes that occur during the years of childhood — processes that partially do overlap.
What is happening is “quadratic growth” a process of relatively even intensity throughout childhood. The other key processes are the infant’s exponential growth (the very steep rise during the first year of life) and thirdly, the pubertal spurt that normally starts around age 8–13.
The ability to predict early or late puberty will, over a long term, make improved height-gain forecasts at individual levels also possible. This will enhance prospects of detecting hidden diseases and also facilitate better assessment of the outcomes of ongoing growth-hormone treatments.
“With monitoring and analysis of height gain, we can detect diseases and assess how well treatments are working,” Holmgren says.”
“By Meghana
Sudden and rapid growth at puberty affects adolescent life at several levels, impacting physical, mental, psychological, social and even political belief systems. More importantly, puberty is often a very unpredictable phase. A new deep dive study has led to deeper insight into growth processes in this phase of life and could result in development of a mathematical model, that allows more certainty.
Entering puberty is viewed as a phase filled with too many variables to be predictable. However, new methods to arrive at newer findings have enabled a better picture to emerge on how children and adolescents grow up, particularly during puberty.
“Growth reflects the health status and can be a diagnostic indicator, capable of discovering both disease and psychological problems. Measuring and monitoring change in height and weight dynamics of a child is therefore one of the most important tasks for child health centers as well as school health services,” says Anton Holmgren, a pediatrician from Sweden.
While working on his PhD thesis, Holmgren got involved in developing a new mathematical growth model that can, in more detail than before, describe height-trend variations in children and adolescents, especially during puberty.
Holmgren has also specifically studied how the Body Mass Index (BMI) during childhood can be linked to height gain. The data of his study comprised the height and weight data of 1,901 subjects during their childhood.
A high BMI early in life was found to be generally associated with a greater proportion of height gain before puberty. The actual spurt was then smaller besides, puberty occurred earlier.
In the category of children with lower BMI with a later onset of puberty, the spurt was much stronger. Those whose puberty was delayed also had several extra years to grow in, and quite simply ended up taller. All these results were found at a broader group level and not while studying separate individuals.
“The smallest pubertal spurt was in the group of children with the highest BMI in childhood — a result that not only no previous study has shown before but also, confirms many pediatricians’ clinical experiences,” Holmgren says.
The findings help to make pubertal growth, more clearly predictable. This improvement in predictability makes it easier to distinguish between various growth processes that occur during the years of childhood — processes that partially do overlap.
What is happening is “quadratic growth” a process of relatively even intensity throughout childhood. The other key processes are the infant’s exponential growth (the very steep rise during the first year of life) and thirdly, the pubertal spurt that normally starts around age 8–13.
The ability to predict early or late puberty will, over a long term, make improved height-gain forecasts at individual levels also possible. This will enhance prospects of detecting hidden diseases and also facilitate better assessment of the outcomes of ongoing growth-hormone treatments.
“With monitoring and analysis of height gain, we can detect diseases and assess how well treatments are working,” Holmgren says.”
