Title
Guideline for preventive child health care in the Netherlands: detecting disorders associated with short and tall stature
Author
van Dommelen, P.
van Zoonen, R.
Vlasblom, E.
Wit, J.M.
Beltman, M.
Publication year
2022
Abstract
AIMS: To develop a guideline for preventive child healthcare (PCHC) professionals in order to improve early detection of pathological disorders associated with short stature (or growth faltering) or tall stature (or accelerated growth). Target groups include primary growth disorders (e.g. dysmorphic syndromes, such as Turner, Noonan, Prader-Willi, Marfan, Sotos, Klinefelter, Fragile X- and Triple-X syndromes) and secondary growth disorders (e.g. growth hormone deficiency or excess, celiac disease and hypothyroidism). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We updated the previous Dutch guideline for short stature in children aged 0-9 years and extended it to adolescents (10-17 years), and added a guideline for tall stature, based on a systematic literature review and input from an expert committee. Specificities were calculated in a cohort of healthy Dutch children aged 0-9 years (n = 970). We investigated the impact of a late onset of puberty on height standard deviation score (SDS) based on the Dutch growth charts. RESULTS: Growth parameters of the guideline include height SDS (HSDS), the distance between HSDS and target height SDS and change of HSDS over time. Other parameters include diagnostic clues from medical history and physical examination, for example behavioral problems, precocious or delayed puberty, body disproportion and dysmorphic features. The guideline also provides information on the causes of short and tall stature. CONCLUSION: PCHC professionals now have an updated guideline for referring short or tall children to specialist care. Several criteria are evidence-based, while others were formulated based on expert opinion and recent literature. The criteria of the guideline are expressed in terms of SDS, so that the guideline can be applied worldwide if any ethnic/country-specific growth references or the WHO standard are used. We recommend a training for PCHC professionals and digital tools in applying the referral criteria.
Subject
Pediatrics
Child
Growth
To reference this document use:
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d4e30218-e788-4fef-a10d-ac34b6caa89f
TNO identifier
977847
Publisher
Conventus Credo, Zagreb
Source
21st EUSUHM (European Union for School and University Health and Medicine) Congress School and Adolescent Health Priorities - Rethinking, Redefining, Responding, 29th Sept-2nd Oct 2022, Split, Coratia, 124
Document type
conference paper