Obesity

Growth Tracking in Severely Obese or Underweight Children

Report on experience using a body-mass index chart that may be better suited for plotting children at the extremes of the growth spectrum. This growth chart uses a “modified z score,” proposed by the CDC, which expresses variations from the median in terms of a unit equal to one half the difference between 0 and +2 z scores (for measures above the mean) and one half the difference between 0 and -2 z scores (for measures below the mean) for any given age and gender.

If one uses modified z score as the y-axis against age, ordinary BMI changes fall along a curve that is much close to a straight line, so outliers should be easier to spot in this circumstance.

Authors illustrate the advantages of using an age-vs-BMI chart with modified z-score isobars over the standard CDC 2000 charts and over the modified charts showing the percentage of the 95th percentile of BMI.

[su_cite_pediatrics url_fragment = ‘140/6/e20172248’ author = ‘Chambers’ year = ‘2017’] | PubMed 29114063 | Author Search

Modified Z-scores in the CDC Growth Charts

Computational methods for detecting biologically implausible values in growth data from the Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Describes the calculation of z-scores and ‘modified z-scores’ in the CDC growth chart data published in 2000. A modified z value is defined, for values above the mean, as half of the difference between the value corresponding to a z-score of 2 and the mean. For values below the mean, the modified z-score is half of the difference between the value corresponding to a z-score of 2 and the mean. One expresses the modifies z-score in terms of the modified z-value. For example, for a 4-year old (48.5 months old) boy, the mean BMI is 15.62. The BMI value corresponding to a z-score of -2 is 13.74. So the modified z-value is (15.62 – 13.74)/2 = 0.94. A boy that age with a BMI of 12 would have a modified BMI z-score of (12 – 15.62)/0.94 = -3.85.

CDC 2000 (Link)