• Tian-Shing Lee, Ting Chao, Ren-Bin Tang, Chia-Chang Hsieh, Shu-Jen Chen, and Low-Tone Ho.
• Department of Pediatrics, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
• J Chin Med Assoc. 2004 Feb 1; 67 (2): 67-72.

BackgroundIt has been pointed out that longitudinal rather than cross-sectional growth standards should be used to assess individual linear growth. The purpose of this study is to investigate the growth characteristics of school boys and girls living in Shih-Pai district in Taipei.MethodsA defined group of 1,139 healthy school children (570 boys and 569 girls) from the Shih-Pai district of Taipei city were followed longitudinally for 3 to 4 years. Anthropometric measurement of height and weight and physical development in each child were obtained. The annual increments were calculated every 6 months to map the peak height velocity (PHV), height velocity curve (HVC), peak weight velocity (PWV) and weight velocity curve (WVC).ResultsThe age at peak velocity was taken as 12.5 years for boys and 10.5 years for girls, and the whole year PHV as 8.0 cm/yr in boys and 7.0 cm/yr in girls. The mean PHV was less than 1 cm in boys and girls of about 17 years and 15 years, respectively, with mean heights of 170.8 cm and 158.7 cm, respectively.ConclusionsOur preliminary results were actually calculated from the combination of longitudinal data and cross-sectional data pools. Since this is only a pilot study design, we expect that a longer follow-up period of the same cohorts would give more exact growth characteristics.

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