A comparison of the National Center for Health Statistics and new World Health Organization growth references for school-age children and adolescents with the use of data from 11 low-income countries.

Background: In 2007 new World Health Organization (WHO) growth references for children aged 5-19 y were introduced to replace the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) references.

Objective: This study aimed to compare the prevalence of stunting, wasting, and thinness estimated by the NCHS and WHO growth references.

Design: NCHS and WHO height-for-age z scores were calculated with the use of cross-sectional data from 20,605 schoolchildren aged 5-17 y in 11 low-income countries.