Are growth curves for Iranian school-aged children different from the NCHS standards? Leila Fakharzadeh a , Hazhir Javaherizadeh b , Fahimeh Sabeti a and Bahman Cheraghian a a Abadan Faculty of Nursing and b Arvand International Division, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Abadan, Iran Correspondence to Dr Hazhir Javaherizadeh, Arvand International Division, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, 6418634549 Abadan, Iran Tel: + 98 631 333 1049; fax: + 98 631 333 5363; e-mails: hazhirja@yahoo.com, hazhirja@gmail.com Received 22 May 2011 Accepted 16 September 2011 Journal of the Egyptian Public Health Association 2011, 86:90–94 Background Assessment of physical growth in school-aged children is important for the assessment of nutritional status, promotion of health and learning ability of children. Assessment of physical growth is the main purpose of this research. Participants and Methods This cross-sectional study was performed on 2615 healthy school-aged children (6–11 years old) in the Autumn of 2006 using two-stage stratified cluster sampling for measurement of weight and height. Sample size calculation was performed using EPI info 6 software. Statistical calculations and calculation of raw growth percentiles were performed using Statistical Package of Social Science program 15.0. Results The findings showed that boys less than 9.5 years of age were heavier than girls of the same age, while girls were heavier thereafter. Similarly, the average height of boys till 10 years was higher than the girls, but girls surpassed boys after 10 years of age. The fifth centile of boys’ height at the ages of 6 and 7 years was higher than the same centile in the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). In all centiles and all ages, the height of Abadanian girls was below the age-matched NCHS centiles. This difference was signi- ficant in 6 (P = 0.003), 7 (P = 0.007), and 11 years (P = 0.002). The results showed that at the age of 6 and 8 years, the 50th centile of the weight of Abadanian boys was slightly below the 50th centile of NCHS. At the age of 6 and 7 years, the 50th centile of girls weight was close to the 25th centile of NCHS, and as the age increased, it shifted upward, to come close to the 50th centile of NCHS. This difference between our study and NCHS girls’ weight curve during the 6–11 age period was significant (Z-test, Po0.0001). Conclusion and recommendations There are some significant differences between the Iranian and NCHS growth parameters. It may be necessary to define new national growth parameters to assess our child health status. Keywords: body height, body weight, National Center for Health Statistics, physical growth J Egypt Public Health Assoc 86:90–94 & 2011 Egyptian Public Health Association 0013-2446 Introduction Assessment of physical growth in school-aged children is an important source of information for assessing the nutri- tional status and also the promotion of health status and learning ability in children. Historically, the most commonly used reference populations for the analysis of group data and the determination of the growth patterns of individual children are the Stuart–Meredith populations, based on the data collected on a relatively small number of children in Boston and Iowa during the 1930s and 1940s [1]. Many countries have established their own reference growth charts for children and adolescents [2,3]. The suitability of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) dataset as an international growth reference has been challenged on serious technical grounds [4–6] and its continued use as a reference to monitor individual growth or to estimate the prevalence of under-nutrition is being discouraged [7,8]. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) [9] and WHO [10,11] produced new growth charts because of deficiencies in the NCHS growth Charts. Because CDC and WHO growth charts did not cover all countries, the development of growth charts for each ethnic group may be beneficial. Material and methods This cross-sectional study was performed on 2615 healthy school-aged children (6–11 years old) in the Abadan city in the south-western region of Iran during Autumn 2006. The study was approved by the ethical committee of the university. Two-stage stratified cluster samplings were used for this study. In the first stage, we classified all schools into two strata by the sex of the students. Proportional to the size of each stratum, 16 schools were randomly selected as clusters. 90 Original article 0013-2446 & 2011 Egyptian Public Health Association DOI: 10.1097/01.EPX.0000407135.39368.d0