TY - JOUR A1 - Novina, Novina A1 - Hermanussen, Michael A1 - Scheffler, Christiane A1 - Pulungan, Aman B. A1 - Ismiarto, Yoyos Dias A1 - Andriyana, Yudhie A1 - Biben, Vitriana A1 - Setiabudiawan, Budi T1 - Indonesian National Growth Reference Charts better reflect height and weight of children in West Java, Indonesia, than WHO Child Growth Standards JF - Journal of Clinical Research in Pediatric Endocrinology N2 - Objective: The Indonesia Basic Health Research 2018 indicates that Indonesian children are still among the shortest in the world. When referred to World Health Organization Child Growth Standards (WHOCGS), the prevalence of stunting reaches up to 43% in several Indonesian districts. Indonesian National Growth Reference Charts (INGRC) were established in order to better distinguish between healthy short children and children with growth disorders. We analyzed height and weight measurements of healthy Indonesian children using INGRC and WHOCGS. Methods: 6972 boys and 5800 girls (n = 12,772), aged 0-59 months old, from Bandung District were measured. Z-scores of length/height and body mass index were calculated based on INGRC and WHOCGS. Results: Under 5-year-old Indonesian children raised in Bandung are short and slim. Mean height z-scores of boys is -2.03 [standard deviation (SD) 1.31], mean height z-scores of girls is -2.03 (SD 1.31) when referred to WHOCGS indicating that over 50 % of these children are stunted. Bandung children are heterogeneous, with substantial subpopulations of tall children. Depending on the growth reference used, between 9% and 15% of them are wasted. Wasted children are on average half a SD taller than their peers. Conclusion: WHOCGS seriously overestimates the true prevalence of undernutrition in Indonesian children. The present investigation fails to support evidence of undernutrition at a prevalence similar to the over 50% prevalence of stunting (WHOCGS) versus 13.3% (INGRC). We suggest refraining from using WHOCGS, and instead applying INGRC that closely mirror height and weight increments in Bandung children. INGRC appear superior for practical and clinical purposes, such as detecting growth and developmental disorders. KW - Anthropometric measurement KW - Indonesian National Growth Reference Charts KW - World Health Organization Child Growth Standards KW - Bandung District KW - children KW - undernutrition Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4274/jcrpe.galenos.2020.2020.0044 SN - 1308-5727 SN - 1308-5735 VL - 12 IS - 4 SP - 410 EP - 419 PB - Galenos Yayincilik CY - Istanbul ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pospisil, Christina A1 - Czernitzki, Anna-Franziska A1 - Scheffler, Christiane T1 - No association between nutrition and body height in German kindergarten children BT - a pilot study JF - Journal of biological and clinical anthropology : Anthropologischer Anzeiger; Mitteilungsorgan der Gesellschaft für Anthropologie N2 - Anthropologists all over the world are discussing influences on individual height including quantity and quality of nutrition. To examine whether a relationship between nutritional components and height can be found this pilot study has been developed. The research samples consisted of 44 children (age 3–6 years) attending two different kindergartens in Germany. Height measurements were taken for each child. Furthermore the parents had to fill out a 24-hour questionnaire to document their children’s eating habits during the weekend. In order to standardize the measured height values z-scores were calculated with reference to the average height of the overall cohort. The results of correlation analysis indicate that height is not significantly related to any of the main nutritional components as protein (r = –0.148), carbohydrates (r = 0.126), fat (r = 0.107), fibre (r = –0.289), vitamin (r = 0.050), calcium (r = 0.110), potassium (r = 0.189) and overall calorie intake (r = 0.302). In conclusion, it can be stated that the quality of nutrition may not have a strong influence on individual height. However, due to the small sample size further research should be provided with a larger cohort of children to verify the present results. KW - nutritional components KW - individual body height KW - children KW - Germany Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1127/anthranz/2017/0704 SN - 0003-5548 SN - 2363-7099 VL - 74 IS - 3 SP - 199 EP - 202 PB - Schweizerbart CY - Stuttgart ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mumm, Rebekka A1 - Scheffler, Christiane T1 - Lack of evidence of nutritional influence on height in four low and middle-income countries JF - Journal of biological and clinical anthropology : Anthropologischer Anzeiger ; Mitteilungsorgan der Gesellschaft für Anthropologie N2 - ‘Nutrition influences height’ has been a common concept for the last decades. Recently, contradictory results occurred when studying the effectiveness of nutritional interventions, questioning the interaction of nutrition and height. Therefore, we hypothesize that, independently of population/country, nutrition does not affect height in children and adolescents. We analyzed data from the study “Young Lives” which was performed in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam to describe the health situation of children. We used linear mixed effect models to analyze the influence of nutrition on height. Furthermore, we used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to test if the commonly assumed hypothetical interaction of height and nutrition can be supported by data from low and middle-income countries. Estimates for nutrition on height of linear mixed effect models were about zero and randomly significant or non-significant in all analyzed countries. Furthermore, SEM led to the rejection of the ‘nutrition influences height’-hypothesis, as data did not support the models based on this hypothesis. We do not find evidence for a nutritional influence on height in children and adolescents from low and middle-income countries. The widespread assumption that inadequate diet is reflected in short stature, which all modern nutritional interventions are based on, needs to be critically reviewed. KW - nutrition KW - height KW - children KW - low and middle-income Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1127/anthranz/2019/0988 SN - 0003-5548 VL - 76 IS - 5 SP - 421 EP - 432 PB - Schweizerbart CY - Stuttgart ER -