New French height velocity growth charts: An innovative big-data approach based on routine measurements.

Abstract

Aim: Height velocity is considered a key auxological tool to monitor growth, but updated height velocity growth charts are lacking. We aimed to derive new French height velocity growth charts by using a big-data approach based on routine measurements.

Methods: We extracted all growth data of children aged 1 month-18 years from the electronic medical records of 42 primary care physicians, between 1 January 1990 and 8 February 2018, throughout the French metropolitan territory. We derived annual and biannual height velocity growth charts until age 15 years by using the Lambda-Mu-Sigma method. These new growth charts were compared to the 1979 French and 2009 World Health Organisation (WHO) ones.

Results: New height velocity growth charts were generated with 193 124 and 209 221 annual and biannual values from 80 204 and 87 260 children, respectively, and showed good internal fit. Median curves were close to the 1979 French or 2009 WHO ones, but SD curves displayed important differences. Similar results were found with the biannual height velocity growth charts.

Conclusion: We produced new height velocity growth charts until age 15 years by using a big-data approach applied to measurements routinely collected in clinical practice. These updated growth charts could help optimise growth-monitoring performance.