Validation of pediatric height estimation formulae in suburban communities in South-east Nigeria: a cross-sectional study

摘要

Height measurement is one of the common essential anthropometric measurements in clinical pediatrics. The most accurate method of determining a child’s height is to measure the height. However, in emergency situations and some resource limited settings, obtaining the actual height of a child may not be feasible hence the need to estimate. The most common age-based formulae for height estimation in children is the Nelson-Wheech formula, 6n + 77 where n = age in years. The accuracy of this height estimation formulae has not been assessed in a developing setting like ours with high prevalence of malnutrition. This study therefore sought to evaluate the accuracy of the height estimation formula in children in communities across Enugu southeast Nigeria.