1031 A Comparison of the Who Child Growth Standards and the Czech Growth References: Prevalence of Wasting Among Infants

Abstract

Subjects: The study (grant IGA Mof H grant No. NS 9974, 4/2008) utilized the 2006 WHO Child Growth Standards and the 1991 Czech growth references. The WHO standards were based on a longitudinal study of 882 children aged 0-24 months and on cross-sectional studies of 6,669 children aged 18-71 months. The 1991 Czech growth references were based on a cross-sectional survey including 90,910 children aged 0-18 years (4,164 were children < 5 years).Methods: The overall ratio of wasting in the sample of Czech children from the 1991 survey was calculated using the WHO Anthro software (version 2) and the WHO criteria for wasting.Results: The prevalence of wasting was significantly higher among Czech children when using the WHO growth standards compared to the Czech references. The prevalence of wasting among 0-5 month old children was 15.5 % among boys and 12.9 % among girls compared to the expected 2.3% of the WHO standards.Conclusions: The application of the WHO growth standards may results in a significant increase in the prevalence of wasting among Czech children, especially among infants aged 0-5 months. The performance and potential impacts of the WHO child growth standards should be evaluated further before their adoption in the Czech Republic and other countries with local growth references.