title: Potential for misclassification of infants' growth increments by using existing reference data.
abstract: The observed variances in monthly weight and length gains of 96 Peruvian infants were compared with predicted variances obtained by applying the reference curve-fitting methods to the same Peruvian data. Predicted variance estimates were significantly less (P less than 0.0001) than the observed variances from 2 to 12 mo of age. The extent of underestimation in total variance that occurred when 1-mo growth-increment reference data were generated by curve-fitting and interpolation was approximated. This underestimation, caused by not taking into account infants' random deviations from their own growth trajectories, ranged from 59% to 94% and resulted in misclassification of approximately 24-67% of infants as abnormal gainers (below the 5th percentile or above the 95th percentile with respect to existing reference data) in the intervals evaluated.
authors.affiliation: Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.
authors.forename: E G
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Piwoz
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Peerson
authors.forename: K H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Brown
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001827:Body Height; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006128:Growth; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D010568:Peru; D012016:Reference Values; D015430:Weight Gain