P3B281: Re-examining Growth Charts for U.S. Children Aged 5 Through 11 Using Data from 2010 to 2016

Background: Childhood obesity in the United States has been increasing in prevalence over time. Currently, health care providers use the CDC growth curves to determine BMI percentiles for children above age 2. With the increasing prevalence of childhood obesity, the CDC growth curves are less accurate in their ability to identify a patient’s true percentile among current U.S. peers. The present study seeks to compare the 2000 CDC height, weight, and BMI growth charts to what growth charts/percentiles would look like for U.S. children aged 5-11 using using recent data from 2010-2016.

Methods: The present study used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-2011 (ECLS-K:2011), a nationally representative and longitudinal study including 18,170 students followed from fall 2010 through spring 2016. Growth curves with ECLS-K:2011 data were constructed using the same methods to construct the CDC growth curves in 2000.

Results: ECLS-K:2011 growth charts reflect higher weights and BMIs with similar heights across percentiles at every age. Disparities between growth charts for weight and BMI widen as children age. By the time children reached age 11, 24% of boys and 18% of girls were considered to be at or above the 95th percentile for BMI based on CDC growth charts.

Conclusion: Growth charts are important tools for identifying children at-risk for negative health outcomes and should continue to be used for diagnosing obesity. However, the increased prevelence of obseity in American children has lessened their ability to identify a patient’s true percentile among current peers. Revised growth charts can be used in conjunction with the CDC growth charts to increase provider knowledge on current obesity trends and address misperceptions of obesity in the community.