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Cited by 78Human Health and DiseaseChild and Adolescent HealthGrowth Hormone and Insulin-like Growth Factors

A big-data approach to producing descriptive anthropometric references: a feasibility and validation study of paediatric growth charts

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Heude, Barbara, Scherdel, Pauline, Werner, Andreas, Le Guern, Morgane, Gelbert, Nathalie, Walther, Déborah, Arnould, Michel, Bellaïche, Marc +16 more·2019·The Lancet Digital Health
DOI 10.1016/s2589-7500(19)30149-9
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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Both national and WHO growth charts have been found to be poorly calibrated with the physical growth of children in many countries. We aimed to generate new national growth charts for French children in the context of huge datasets of physical growth measurements routinely collected by office-based health practitioners. METHODS: We recruited 32 randomly sampled primary care paediatricians and ten volunteer general practitioners from across the French metropolitan territory who used the same electronic medical records software, from which we extracted all physical growth data for the paediatric patients, with anonymisation. We included measurements from all children born from Jan 1, 1990, and aged 1 month to 18 years by Feb 8, 2018, with birthweight greater than 2500 g, to which an automated process of data cleaning developed to detect and delete measurement or transcription errors was applied. Growth charts for weight and height were derived by using generalised additive models for location, scale, and shape with the Box-Cox power exponential distribution. We compared the new charts to WHO growth charts and existing French national growth charts, and validated our charts using growth data from recent national cross-sectional surveys. FINDINGS: After data cleaning, we included 1 458 468 height and 1 690 340 weight measurements from 238 102 children. When compared with the existing French national and WHO growth charts, all height SD and weight percentile curves for the new growth charts were distinctly above those for the existing French national growth charts, as early as age 1 month, with an average difference of -0·75 SD for height and -0·50 SD for weight for both sexes. Comparison with national cross-sectional surveys showed satisfactory calibration, with generally good fit for children aged 5-6 years and 10-11 years in height and weight and small differences at age 14-15 years. INTERPRETATION: We successfully produced calibrated paediatric growth charts by using a novel big-data approach applied to data routinely collected in clinical practice that could be used in many fields other than anthropometry. FUNDING: The French Ministry of Health; Laboratoires Guigoz-General Pediatrics section of the French Society of Pediatrics-Pediatric Epidemiological Research Group; and the French Association for Ambulatory Pediatrics.

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  1. Bocquet A, Chalumeau M, Bollotte D, Escano G, Langue J, Virey B. Comparison of prescriptions by pediatricians and general practitioners: a population-based study in Franche-Comté from the database of Regional Health Insurance Fund. Arch Pediatr 2005; 12: 1688-96 (in French).
  2. Verdot C, Torres M, Salanave B, Deschamps V. Children and adults body mass index in France in 2015. Results of the Esteban study and trends since 2006. Bull Epidemiol Hebd (Paris) 2017; 13: 234-40 (in French).

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Authors
Heude, B., Scherdel, P., Werner, A., Le Guern, M., Gelbert, N., Walther, D., Arnould, M., Bellaïche, M., Chevallier, B., Cheymol, J., Jobez, E., N'Guyen, S., Pietrement, C., Reynaud, R., Salaün, J.-F., Khoshnood, B., Zeitlin, J., Maccario, J., Breart, G., Thalabard, J.-C., Charles, M.-A., Botton, J., Frandji, B., & Chalumeau, M.
Affiliations
  • Université Paris Cité (FR)
  • Inserm (FR)
  • Association Française de Pédiatrie Ambulatoire (FR)
  • Société Française de Médecine Générale (FR)
  • Hôpital Ambroise-Paré (FR)
  • Aix-Marseille Université (FR)
  • Université Paris Descartes (FR)
  • Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
  • Université Paris-Sud (FR)
  • Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades (FR)
Corresponding author
Scherdel, Pauline
ORCID
Venue
The Lancet Digital Health
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2019-12
Volume
1
Issue
8
Pages
e413-e423
ISSN
2589-7500 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/s2589-7500(19)30149-9
OpenAlex
W2987418334
Cited by
78
References
40
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 1
FWCI
6.50
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • The Lancet Digital Health (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • HAL AMU (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Human Health and Disease
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Child and Adolescent Health
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Growth Hormone and Insulin-like Growth Factors
Keywords
anthropometric reference values, big data, electronic health records, WHO growth charts, height and weight percentiles, French children, primary care data
MeSH terms
Big Data, Adolescent, Body Height, Body Weight, Child, Child, Preschool, Feasibility Studies, Female, Humans, Infant, Male, Reference Values, Growth Charts

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