Contemporary height, weight and body mass index references for children aged 0 to adulthood in Switzerland compared to the Prader reference, WHO and neighbouring countries

Abstract

Background: In 2011, WHO growth curves replaced those of Prader and colleagues (First Zurich longitudinal study) in Switzerland.Aim: To present contemporary height-, weight- and body mass index (BMI)-for-age references reflecting children’s growth in modern Switzerland.Subjects and methods: Cross-sectional sample comprising 30,141 boys and girls aged 0–20 years measured between 2012 and 2019. Height, weight and BMI reference curves were created using the LMS method. Derived percentiles were compared with those of Prader, WHO and neighbouring countries.Results: Growth in the first 5 years is almost identical with Prader curves. Thereafter children are taller, yet their final height is only about 1 cm higher. Today’s children, in particular boys, are considerably heavier. In comparison with WHO growth references, Swiss children are taller from the second year until adulthood; the WHO 3rd percentiles lie about 4 cm below those of our updated references. Weight and BMI median percentiles from our sample are similar to those of WHO and higher than the Prader curves. However, the course of the 97th BMI percentile WHO curves extends well below the 97th percentile of the updated Swiss curves.Conclusion: This study provides contemporary reference data for assessing individual growth based on height, weight and BMI of Swiss children.