National Centre for Health Statistics (NCHS) Reference

Abstract

Growth is a kind of velocity and measures the rate of change of size over a certain period of time. Growth measurements are taken at regular intervals over a specified period of time. Growth assessment is basically a kind of comparison with a reference normally called a “growth reference”. Without such a reference, growth assessment becomes arbitrary. Until the late 1970s, a number of growth charts were utilized to assess child growth. In the year 1977, the National Centre for Health Statistics (NCHS) published a new set of growth charts for children aged <18 years based on data from the Fels Longitudinal Growth Study and nationally representative surveys. The NCHS later became a part of the Centre for disease control (CDC) in the year 1987. The NCHS growth charts consists of 14 sex specific growth charts and used different indicators like weight-for-age, weight- for- length, length-for-age, head circumference for age stature-forage and weight-for-stature. These curves represent attained size, and do not describe rates of growth as might be represented in incremental or longitudinal growth charts. It utilizes per centile rankings to describe the relative size of a given child. The main advantage of NCHS reference is that the data was based on current and high quality growth data as well as on the most recent advances in data processing and analysis.