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MEASUREMENT OF GROWTH FOR CHILDREN WITH DOWN SYNDROME (DS) IN HONG KONG

CM Yu, Betty But, Eva Fung, Shirley Li, LP Li, Philomena Tse, KL Yam, CB Chow, J Lau.

Hong Kong Down Syndrome Association (HKDSA)

Measurement of growth is essential for children with DS both for health monitor and early detection of underlying medical conditions. There is no growth standard for Chinese DS children.

Objective: To collect growth and other health data of DS subjects from the Hong Kong DS Association, paediatric clinics in different hospitals and DS students studying in special schools. The growth data will be composite into growth centile charts.

Method: The growth and other health data of these DS children aged from 0 to 18 years of age were retrieved from the medical records, As far as possible, at least one growth measurement would be measured by one of the co-investigators using standard method. Their attending paediatricians completed questionnaires on medical conditions which will be analyzed separately and correlated with the growth pattern.

Results: 423 DS children participated the study with 252 have their growth measured by one of the co-investigators. In total, 4200 height observations and 5491 weight observations were recorded, A growth curve was constructed from the data. The growth pattern of these DS children were compared with the HK children growth study (1993) showing that these DS boys and girls were shorter throughout their whole growing period but the body weight were comparable to other children of similar age.

Conclusions: The study provided important information regarding the growth of Chinese DS children. The pattern of growth of DS children are very different from other normal children whose growth curves should not be extrapolated to them.