Abstract
Objectives. We investigate whether parents complaining of their children's short stature have misconception of their height. Methods. Parents were asked to report their own height and were then measured. We compared the difference between reported and actual height of parents of children with short stature (CSS) with that of parents coming for a well child care visit (WCC) and parents of children referred to the endocrinologist without short stature (Endo). The accuracy of reported height from short (below 25%) and tall (above 75%) parents was compared. Results. The CSS fathers were shorter than WCC (P < .01) fathers. The CSS mothers were shorter than the Endo (P < .01) and WCC (P < .001) mothers. There was no difference between reported and actual height when comparing the groups based on the reason for the visit or based on the parental height. Conclusions. Parents of CSS and short parents do not have a misconception of their height.
Highlights
One of the most important factors determining someone’s height is the parental height [1]
Physicians frequently rely on the reported height of the parents to calculate, this genetic target height
Rona et al looked at the reported height of parents of normal English children and found variations based on race and gender [5] while LeJarraga et al looked at the validity of selfreported parental height at a growth clinic in Argentina and found variations in the reported height with differences between social classes [6]
Summary
One of the most important factors determining someone’s height is the parental height [1]. Parental height is used to estimate the adult height of children, the so-called genetic target height. Physicians frequently rely on the reported height of the parents (not the measured height) to calculate, this genetic target height. Based on the genetic target height Physicians will decide if a child is growing within the family pattern or not. Several studies have previously evaluated the accuracy of reported height, but with different results [2,3,4]. Teitelbaum et al told parents that the accuracy of the reported height was important for the care of the children prior to asking their heights and still found a wide range in the difference between reported and measured height [8]
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