abstract ok.indd - eusuhm

EPIDEMIOLOGICAL FEATURES IN GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS – A RESEARCH
AREA OF SCHOOL HEALTH .
Živka. Prebeg
Andrija Štampar School of Public Health, Zagreb, Croatia
Growth and development in children and adolescents became the concern of scientiffic interest
relatively late. First systematic epidemiological researches in this topic have been performed in
school children..
Although all human beings follow the same basic growth patterns, dynamic of growth varies
between and within populations and also changes over time.
As it is welknown nowadays, children’s rate of growth mirrors the state of their health.
This paper is an overwiew of growth variations and secular changes in Croatia based on the results
of three research projects organized by the Andrija Štampar School of Public Health. The
first refers to secular growth changes in Zagreb schoolchildren. It began in 1951, the surveys
were repeated 5 time up to 2001.
In the second , starting in the late seventies, variations in menarcheal age throughout Croatia
were investigated. In the third study, the focus was on the height and weight of schoolchildren living
in various parts of the country. Data collection tok place between 1980 and 1984. Children
aged 7 to 18 were measured in 36 localities.
Both of the nation-wide surveys discovered marked differences in body size and maturational
rate. Therefore repeated investigations in the same localities were undertaken 10 – 15 years later.
The results showed that secular changes in mean height and menarcheal age varied between
regions in the last decades. In some, positive changes in mean height kept associating with an
earlier onset of menarche. In others a very steep trend of increasing body size had been accompanied
by a halt or even reversal in menarcheal age, whereas in some changes in both features,
growth in height and maturation, seemed to reach their end .
NEW CROSS-SECTIONAL GROWTH CHARTS FROM BIRTH TO MATURITY IN FLANDERS (BELGIUM)
M. Roelants(a), K. Hoppenbrouwers(b), J. Deschepper(c), L. Dooms(d), J. Pauwels (e), A. Moreels(f),
G. Verleye(g), C. Susanne(a), R. Hauspie(a)
(a) Laboratory of Anthropogenetics Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium;
(b) Department of Youth Health Care Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; (c)
Academic Hospital, Vrije Universiteit Brussel and European Childhood Obesity Group, Brussel,
Belgium; (d) Belgian Study Group for Pediatric Endocrinology, Belgium; (e) Kind & Gezin,
Brussel, Belgium; (f) Student Health Centre, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium; (g) Ghent
University, Gent, Belgium
In most West-European countries, adult stature is increasing and attainted at younger ages. This
phenomenon, known as “secular trend”, is related to the rising level of affluence in society. An
important side effect is the need for regular updates of reference material for growth monitoring
(i.e. growth charts).
The current Flemish growth charts date from the early eighties and will be replaced by
new cross-sectional growth standards from birth to maturity by the end of 2003. This
is the result of a large scale growth survey in well-baby clinics, and school and university
health centers, that was initiated in 2001 and will continue until 2006. It includes
34