Perspective: Can Growth Monitoring and Promotion Accurately Diagnose or Screen for Inadequate Growth of Individual Children? A Critical Review of the Epidemiologic Foundations.

ABSTRACT: Growth monitoring and promotion (GMP), the process of periodic anthropometric measurements to assess the adequacy of individual child growth, is implemented across low-income and middle-income countries. The epidemiologic foundations of GMP (i.e., that GMP can accurately diagnose or screen for inadequate growth) have never been critically reviewed. We first assessed growth patterns of individual healthy children. Using longitudinal data from low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries, we evaluated whether commonly used GMP criteria can be used for diagnosis and screening; i.e., whether they accurately identify current, or predict subsequent, inadequate growth in individual children. The growth of individual healthy children does not track along a specific growth curve, which chal

SUBMITTER: Leroy JL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11880696 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature