Digital child health: opportunities and obstacles. A joint statement of European Academy of Paediatrics and European Confederation of Primary Care Paediatricians.

The advancement of technology and the increasing digitisation of healthcare systems have opened new opportunities to transform the delivery of child health services. The importance of interoperable electronic health data in enhancing healthcare systems and improving child health care is evident. Interoperability ensures seamless data exchange and communication among healthcare entities, providers, institutions, household and systems.

Childhood BMI trajectories predict cardiometabolic risk and perceived stress at age 13 years: the STARS cohort.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine BMI trajectories from birth throughout childhood, associations with health outcomes at age 13 years, and time frames during which early-life BMI influenced adolescent health.

Methods: Participants (1902, 44% male) reported perceived stress and psychosomatic symptoms and were examined for waist circumference (WC), systolic blood pressure (SBP), pulse wave velocity, and white blood cell counts (WBC). BMI trajectory was analyzed using group-based trajectory modeling of retrospective data of weight/height from birth throughout childhood.

Swedish Child Health Services Register: a quality register for child health services and children's well-being.

Background: Swedish child health services (CHS) is a free-of-charge healthcare system that reaches almost all children under the age of 6. The aim for the CHS is to improve children's physical, psychological and social health by promoting health and development, preventing illness and detecting emerging problems early in the child's life. The services are defined in a national programme divided into three parts: universal interventions, targeted interventions and indicated interventions.

Novel type of references for BMI aligned for onset of puberty - using the QEPS growth model.

Objectives: Despite inter-individual variations in pubertal timing, growth references are conventionally constructed relative to chronological age (C-age). Thus, they are based on reference populations containing a mix of prepubertal and pubertal individuals, making them of limited use for detecting abnormal growth during adolescence. Recently we developed new types of height and weight references, with growth aligned to age at onset of the pubertal growth spurt (P-age).

Novel type of references for weight aligned for onset of puberty - using the QEPS growth model.

Background: Growth references are traditionally constructed relative to chronological age, despite inter-individual variations in pubertal timing. A new type of height reference was recently developed allowing growth to be aligned based on onset of pubertal height growth. We here aim to develop a corresponding reference for pubertal weight.

[The pediatric population as a whole, and those with special health care needs especially, is increasing.].

In this investigation performed in pediatric patients in Västra Götalandsregionen in Sweden we concluded that as many as 20 % of the children had long-term and/or more extensive contact with the health care system. We used two different methods, combining professional clinical judgement with data from the health care production register in Västra Götalandsregionen, to define the incidence of chronic diseases among the pediatric population. The spectrum of diseases observed is broad, spanning up to 20 different diagnostic areas.

A new type of pubertal height reference based on growth aligned for onset of pubertal growth.

Objectives Growth references of today traditionally describe growth in relation to chronological age. Despite the broad variation in age of pubertal maturation, references related to biological age are lacking. To fill this knowledge gap, we aimed to develop a new type of pubertal height reference for improved growth evaluation during puberty, considering individual variation in pubertal timing.

Swedish references for weight, weight-for-height and body mass index: The GrowUp 1990 Gothenburg study.

Aim: To update the Swedish references for weight, weight-for-height and body mass index (BMI) considering the secular trend for height but not including that for weight.

Methods: Longitudinal measures of height and weight were obtained (0-18 years) from 1418 (698 girls) healthy children from the GrowUp 1990 Gothenburg cohort born at term to non-smoking mothers and Nordic parents. A total of 145 individuals with extreme BMI value vs GrowUp 1974 BMI SDS reference were excluded (0-2 years: ±4SDS, 2 < years: -3SDS, +2.

A new Swedish reference for total and prepubertal height.

Aim: We aimed to develop up-to-date references with standard deviation scores (SDS) for prepubertal and total height.

Methods: Longitudinal length/height measures from 1572 healthy children (51.5% boys) born at term in 1989-1991 to non-smoking mothers and Nordic parents were obtained from the GrowUp 1990 Gothenburg cohort.

Estimating secular changes in longitudinal growth patterns underlying adult height with the QEPS model: the Grow Up Gothenburg cohorts.

Background: Over the past 150 years, humans have become taller, and puberty has begun earlier. It is unclear if these changes are continuing in Sweden, and how longitudinal growth patterns are involved. We aimed to evaluate the underlying changes in growth patterns from birth to adulthood by QEPS estimates in two Swedish cohorts born in 1974 and 1990.

Insight into human pubertal growth by applying the QEPS growth model.

Background: Computerized mathematical models describing absolute and relative individual growth during puberty in both cm and standard deviation (SD)-scores are lacking. The present study aimed to fill this gap, by applying the QEPS-model that delineates mathematically the specific pubertal functions of the total growth curve.

Methods: Study population used was the individual growth curves of the longitudinally followed cohort GrowUp1974 Gothenburg (n = 2280).

Pubertal height gain is inversely related to peak BMI in childhood.

Background: Childhood BMI may influence subsequent growth in height as well as the timing of puberty. The aim of the present study was to investigate associations between BMI in childhood and subsequent height gain/pubertal growth.

Methods: Longitudinal growth data were used (GrowUpGothenburg cohort, n = 1,901).

Modelling individual longitudinal human growth from fetal to adult life - QEPS I.

Background: Only one mathematical model to date describes human growth and its different phases from fetal life until adult height.

Aim: To develop a model describing growth from fetal life to adult height taking maturation/biological tempo into consideration.

Subjects: The model was developed based on longitudinal mean height values obtained from published growth references for a cohort of 3650 healthy Swedish children followed from birth circa 1974 until adult height combined with birth-length for circa 400 000 healthy infants born 1990-1995.

Children's growth: a health indicator and a diagnostic tool.

Unlabelled: The publication of Werner and Bodin in Acta Paediatrica should inspire countries to use the growth of children as an indicator of health. The development of databases that cover all measurements of all children that have contact with healthcare and medical care will provide new knowledge in this area. Such databases will give us the opportunity to explore health in different areas of the country and to evaluate community projects in order to prevent obesity.

Morphological appearance and chemical composition of enamel in primary teeth from patients with 22q11 deletion syndrome.

Patients with 22q11 deletion syndrome have many and complex medical problems, including hypocalcemia and/or hypoparathyroidism. Odontological findings include enamel aberrations in both dentitions. In order to describe enamel morphology, chemical composition in primary teeth, and to investigate the relationship between medical history and morphological appearance, dental enamel was investigated in 38 exfoliated primary teeth from 15 children and adolescents.

Reference values for insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) and the ratio of insulin-like growth factor-I to IGFBP-3 throughout childhood and adolescence.

To facilitate the diagnosis of GH deficiency and monitor GH therapy, we constructed two reference models to allow comparison of serum IGF binding protein (IGFBP)-3 concentrations and IGF-I to IGFBP-3 ratios among children throughout childhood and adolescence. This report presents equations for determining the sd score of IGFBP-3 and IGF-I to IGFBP-3 measurements for individual patients. The data set contains serum values from 468 healthy children and adolescents (232 males, 236 females; ages 1.

Association between insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) polymorphisms, circulating IGF-I, and pre- and postnatal growth in two European small for gestational age populations.

The purpose of this study was to assess the association of IGF-I and birth size by studying small for gestational age (SGA) subphenotypes and undertaking more detailed analysis of IGF-I genetic markers. SGA subjects from Haguenau, France (n = 113), and Gothenburg, Sweden (n = 174), were studied. The Swedish subjects were subphenotyped according to postnatal growth (114 short SGA and 60 SGA catch-up).

Pubertal growth assessment.

Almost all available sets of height growth reference values are constructed in a cross-sectional manner, except for a few studies in which longitudinal sampling was used. Such reference values are, however, flawed because of considerable individual variation in the timing of puberty, especially among children with early or late pubertal maturation. An additional complicating factor is that the magnitude of the total pubertal growth spurt is significantly larger among those individuals with early pubertal maturation, compared with late maturation.

[A child's growth mirrors health and illness. Regular measurement of body height is an important diagnostic tool].

The growth of children is an important health indicator. In the individual child, growth mirrors health or illness. At the child population level, growth may be used to monitor living conditions.