Forgotten Diseases Research Foundation

Peru

Postnatal Growth

Growth Curves for Peru

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. 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.
  2. Photo credit: A llama at Machu Picchu. Image taken by Alexandre Buisse and found on Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.

 

Page last modified on 18 April 2022.