Developing differential height, weight and body mass index references for girls that reflect the impact of the menarche

Abstract

Aim: Growth is both a matter of amplitude and tempo. We aimed to develop references for body height, body weight and body mass index (BMI) with respect to tempo of maturity.

Methods: Data obtained from the German KiGGS study (2003-2006) on body height, body weight and presence or absence of the menarche were re-analysed in 3776 girls, aged 10-17 years. We developed smoothed centiles for BMI-, body-height- and body-weight-for-age using the LMS method for premenarcheal and postmenarcheal girls.

Results: Body height, body weight and BMI differed significantly between premenarcheal and postmenarcheal girls. On average, postmenarcheal girls aged 11-17 years were 5.3 cm taller and 9.7 kg heavier, and their BMI was 2.9 kg/m² higher than in premenarcheal girls of the same calendar age.

Conclusion: Adolescent BMI rises with calendar age and biological age. New reference charts for adolescent girls aged 10-18 years were generated to be inserted into the currently used references to avoid misclassifying underweight and overweight pubertal girls.

Keywords: Body mass index; Body mass index reference values; Menarche; Obesity; Overweight.