ESPE Abstracts

Background: Over 90% children grow normally, and attain final height within their genetic target. Up to 10% of all children do not spontaneously catch-up by the age 3 years, besides some cases of TS are diagnosed late, and others with SGA go undiagnosed and unattended.

Objectives & Hypothesis: Early screening of growth patterns in children attending Child Protection Visits (PMI, France) in Dreux district. Our objective was the evaluation of prevalence of growth retardation in preschool aged children.

Method: Standard measures of weight, height and BMI were collected for all children aged 3–5 years during systematic PMI visits. Birth variables, family history of short stature, maternal smoking, ethnic origin, etc. were also recorded. Each child was measured twice (wall stadiometer), and mean height recorded. Parents of those with height < −2.0 SDS received information and written proposal to attend hospital growth visit. Pubertal stage was recorded according to Tanner staging.

Results: 590 children were screened from 2013 to 2015 (301 boys, 289 girls), mean age 4.33±0.76 SD years, 48% were Caucasians, 13.7% North Africans, 2.5% black Africans, 0.8% Asians. 526/575 (91.5%) children were term-born, 8.5% (49/575) were preterm. 89.6% (484/540) children were AGA and 10.4% (56/540) were SGA (Usher & McLean curves). Mean BL was 49.03±0.71 cm, mean BW 3258.7±205.1 g and mean HC 34.49±0.71 cm. 11% infants of north African descent were macrosomic. Catch-up growth was complete in 98% children, whereas 2% (11/540) were short at age 5 years. 8/11 (73%) children attended our growth clinics (7 short stature and 1 obesity with micropenis), 2 are GH treated.

Conclusion: These preliminary results show that growth screening in community is important as it enables both early diagnosis and follow-up in children with growth problems. Our results probably underestimate the true prevalence of short stature as results are partial at this point.