UAE to have updated children's growth chart

Speaking to Khaleej Times, Dr Mahmoud Fikri, Assistant Under-Secretary for Preventive Medicine at the Ministry of Health (MoH) said that the new charts would be implemented after approval from the World Health Organisation by next year.

'The UAE is already following old norms which include monitoring of the weight, height and body mass index (BMI), which are not relevant any more in this part of the world since several chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes have surfaced in recent years,' he said.

The updated charts will indicate new innovative growth indicators beyond height and weight that are particularly useful for monitoring the increasing epidemic of childhood obesity-related problems such as the skin-fold thicknesses, he noted.

The UAE's Minister of Health, Humaid Mohammed Obaid Al Quttami met Adelaide Onyango, an expert on Growth Curves for Children at the WHO, with regard to the possibility of introducing these curves in the UAE.

The talks focused on the mechanism of applying these charts in the UAE and the subsequent training programmes.

Maternity and childcare centres and education health clinics will adopt the new standards across UAE after approval.

The meeting explored the possibility of applying these charts for different age groups — from infanthood to youth.

Dr Fikri also explained that a national health taskforce would be set up and it would include representatives from the MoH, Abu Dhabi Health Authority, Al Ain University and other emirates to set standards for the new child growth curves.

Training workshops for medical professionals at primary health care centres and educational health clinics will be held in May this year in coordination with the WHO.

The UAE will be among the first Gulf countries in the region to introduce these charts after Oman, which has been part of a WHO study on curves for children growth in 1997 along with Brazil, the US, Ghana, Norway, and India.