Peru
Postnatal Growth
A 2015 study (1) created growth curves for Peruvian school-children aged 4-17 years who were living in central Peru. Cross-sectional data from 8753 children (47.2% boys and 52.8% girls) was collected between 2009 and 2011 from 31 public schools at 3 different altitudes: Barranco (roughly at sea level), La Merced and San Ramón (700 m & 750 m [2300-2500 feet] above sea level) and Junín (4130 m [13,500 feet] above sea level). Data was pooled to create a reference representative of the nation as a whole.
The authors compared their data with North American and Argentinean references. They found that, between the ages of 6 and 13, Peruvian children were shorter than their peers in the United States (~5.4 cm for boys and ~6.6 cm for girls) and Argentina (~2.8 cm for boys and ~3.9 cm for girls).
References
- 1. Bustamante, A, et al. (2015). Centile curves and reference values for height, body mass, body mass index and waist circumference of Peruvian children and adolescents. Int J Environ Res Public Health 12(3): 2905-2922. Full text on PubMed Central.
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