Assessment of somatic maturation of venezuelan adolescents

Abstract

Introduction: beginning of adolescence comprises important physical modifications, which affects growth and changes in body composition, therefore it is important to consider maturation assessment. Objective: to develop a non-invasive method to assess maturity status in Venezuelan adolescents from peak height velocity (PHV) by means of anthropometric variablesin a cross-sectional sample. Methods: data comprised 681 Venezuelan adolescents 9 up to 18 years of age. Mirwald equation was applied to derived PHV. Regression analysis was used in order to build a model for Venezuelan sample as well as, ROC curves to assess sensitivity and specificity of anthropometric variables. Results: the predictive equations for both sexes, exhibited a high determination coefficient (< 0.99) and a minimal estimation error (0.06). Mean decimal age at categories of PHV obtained by both equations: criterion and model, were very similar (13.27 vs. 13.39) for boys, and (11.62 vs. 11.77) for girls. Bland Altman plot showed a tight concordance between the two equations and all anthropometric indices, exhibited high area under the curve > 0.75, specially sitting height. Discussion and conclusion: in Venezuela, there is little work based on longitudinal studies of the maturation status. Giving the difficult faced in the longitudinal studies recent works have been used cross sectional methodology in the assessment of the somatic maturation, both in non athletic and athletic populations. This study provides predicting equations for the assessment of the somatic maturation adjusted to Venezuelan population developed from Mirwald equation, which may be used to aid in evaluation of nutritional and general health, as well as, a anreduction of risks associated with miss-classification for chronological age.