Postnatal Growth

The Health Services Council of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia sponsored a research initiative; "Health Status of Saudi children and Adolescents." Pediatric researchers and clinicians at King Saud University and the Ministry of Health produced a comprehensive set of tables and growth curves for Saudi children and adolescents from birth to age 19 years. The study included information on the following:

• Weight for age
• Weight for stature (height)
• BMI
• Length and height for age
• Head circumference for age
• Systolic blood pressure
• Diastolic blood pressure
• Liver size
• Prevalence of a large variety of chronic and other diseases

This document was created as part of a national effort to gauge the growth and health patterns of Saudi children. The Introduction notes that a comparison with US growth charts showed that Saudi children do not grow in the same way as American children, and that use of US growth charts in this population could increase misdiagnoses of growth-related problems.

The authors obtained data from 42,000 infants, children, and adolescents in all regions of Saudi Arabia (1).

Reference

1. 1. El Mouzan MAS et al. (2008) Health Profile of Saudi Children and Adolescents. Riyadh: King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology. National Research Results on the Health Status of Saudi Children and Adolescents