Growth spurt in height and weight of children in rural South Africa : the case of Ellisras longitudinal study

Abstract

TheEllisrasLongitudinalStudy(ELS)openedthepossibilitiesforunderstandingthegrowthvariationsamongchildreninruralSouthAfrica. Theaimofthe study was to analyse the growth spurt in height and weight of children using the ELS. This is part of the on going ELS and this study followed secondary analytical longitudinal study using data collected from November 1996 to November 2003. All children underwent a series of anthropometric measurements of height and weight according to the standard procedures recommended by the International Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry. The descriptive statistics was done for age, height, weight, velocity and acceleration by gender amongst rural children in Ellisras. Thelinearmixedmodelwasusedto analyse data. Based on the smallest values of AIC and BIC, the best model to fit the ELS data which was found to be the unstructured covariance structure model was chosen. The interaction between age and gender, which was significant at 5% level suggested that the relationship of age with growth varies depending on gender. There was also a significant positive linear relationship of age with distance. The onset of growth spurt for rural children in Ellisras was at 12.05 years for boys and at 12.32 years for girls, while the Senegalese boys took off earlier at 11.02 years. Ellisras rural boys and USA boys had their onset of growth spurt almost at the same age at 13 years for USA boys and 12.05 years for Ellisras rural boys. USA girls had their onset of growth spurt earlier at 11 years than Ellisras rural girls at 12.32 years. Newcastle upon Tyne adolescents reached ii their PHV at 14 and 12 years for boys and girls respectively, similarly with Ellisras rural children at 14.21 and 11.80 years for boys and girls respectively. Ellisras rural girls had their PHV at 11.80 years earlier than Ellisras rural boys at 14.21 years. Children in rural Ellisras in the ELS and their growth variations do not differ that much compared with other children across the world. Key words: Growth spurt, peak height velocity, boys, girls.