New child growth chart to go into use starting in July

Starting in July this year, the Maternal and Child Health Centre of the Department of Health will use a new child growth chart to examine the growth trends in height and weight of children and adolescents.

This came after a survey that showed that teenagers nowadays saw “significant growth” as compared to teenagers three decades ago, as both boys and girls were two centimeters taller than teenagers back in 1993.

The department, along with the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the University of Hong Kong, collected the data from over 20,000 students and compared it to 30 years ago.

They discovered that children and teenagers have seen a two-centimeter increase in their heights, with 18-year-old boys growing to 172.5 cm in 2020 and girls growing up to 160.2 cm.

Due to the significant long-term growth in the data, the Department of Health said it will update its children's growth chart and put the updated chart in use starting in July this year. 

The department said that continuing the use of the old growth chart may not be suitable for reviewing the growth of the children at the current time and age, which led to the establishment of a new growth chart that will update the standards for head circumference, weight, and height.

The height and weight difference chart will also be replaced by a body mass index to assess overweight and obesity.