BMJ 1996;313:1486 (7 December)

Letters

Data from Sheffield support authors' findings

EDITOR,--Charlotte M Wright and colleagues describe differences between the sexes in the weights of infants in Newcastle upon Tyne compared with the British 1990 national standards.1 Some support for this sex discrepancy is found in a longitudinal prospective study of failure to thrive in a socially disadvantaged group of infants in Sheffield that is currently in progress. Table 1 shows the mean weights at birth and 3 months in these infants compared with the standards given by the national 1990,2 Tanner (1965),3 and local Sheffield weight charts (1974).4 Although the selection of subjects precludes any direct comparison with the mean weights of the standards, it is interesting that there is a considerable discrepancy between the 1990 standard deviation scores of the otherwise homologous boys and girls in the study group at 3 months, which, as Wright and colleagues note, places more girls than boys below the mean. 


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Table 1--Standard . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Sex differences in weight in infancy and the British 1990 national growth standards
Charlotte M Wright, Sally S Corbett, and Robert F Drewett
BMJ 1996 313: 513-514. [Abstract] [Full Text]

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