THE USE AND ABUSE OF WEIGHT-HEIGHT-AGE TABLES AS INDEXES OF HEALTH AND NUTRITION

Abstract

In the hands of novices and the uncritical observer, all instruments of accuracy or precision may be grossly abused. Weight-height-age tables, although frequently inaccurate in themselves, have been no exception to this general rule. Tables in the past have been in a very large measure, if not exclusively, based on single measurements instead of consecutive measurements on the same children; on children clothed instead of nude; on the use of the last birthday or gross age in place of the nearest birthday; on heterogeneous groups of children of different nationalities in place of relatively well developed homogeneous groups of American born children who have had medical inspection, physical training and directed play; on inaccurate measurements taken by numerous untrained observers in place of trained anthropometrists with standardized instruments, small units of measure and standardized technic. Accurate norms cannot be based on inaccurate data. The new Baldwin-Wood tables meet these requirements.