PENS Position Statement on Linear Growth Measurement of Children

Abstract

The Pediatric Endocrinology Nursing Society (PENS) is committed to the development and advancement of nurses in the art and science of pediatric endocrinology nursing and to improve the care of all children with endocrine disorders through the education of the pediatric The Pediatric Endocrinology Nursing Society (PENS) is committed to advancing the art and science of pediatric endocrinology nursing. PENSmembers specialize in the nursing care of children with disorders of growth and hormone regulation. PENS believes that nurses are in a unique position to ensure accurate and reliable growth measurement, thereby promoting the timely recognition of abnormal patterns of growth. Since healthy infants and children have predictable patterns of linear growth (length/height), normal growth is used as a standard for assessing child health and well-being. Children with growth pattern deviations (e.g., unexplained short or tall stature, growth failure, growth acceleration) should be evaluated to differentiate between normal growth variants and pathologic conditions. Growth is such a sensitive indicator of health that abnormal growth may be the earliest sign of pathology (Craig, Fayter, Stirk,C Haymond et al., 2013). Pathological growth may result from nutritional disease, a genetic disorder, an endocrine cause, psychosocial problems, intrauterine growth retardation, or systemic disease and/or disease progression or exacerbation (Haymond et al., 2013; Richmond & Rogol, 2014; Rogol & Hayden, 2014). Measurement error can occur when inaccurate instruments are used to obtain length or height (Berkson et al., 2013; Gerner, McCallum, Sheehan, Harris, & Wake, 2006; Lipman et al., 2004) or if accurate instruments are not properly calibrated (Biehl et al., 2013). Incorrect technique by the measurer is another source of measurement error (Lima, Oliveira, F Lipman et al., 2004). Therefore, it is