Height and Body Mass Index Estimated by Alternative Measures in Children with Spastic Quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy and Moderate/Severe Malnutrition

Objective: To demonstrate that alternative measures are reliable predictors of height in children with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy (CP) and moderate/severe malnutrition and in healthy children.

Methods: In an intervention study, thirteen patients with CP (10 females and 3 males, with an average age of 9 y 11 m±2 y 3 m) with Gross Motor Function Classification System level V and moderate/severe malnutrition were included. They were compared with 57 healthy participants (31 females and 26 males with an average age of 8 y 7 m±10 m). Weight, height and alternative measures to height were obtained. ANOVA, Student’s t test, the Mann-Whitney U test, the Wilcoxon test, and the Pearson correlation were used.

Results: Significant differences were observed in weight, height and alternative measures between children with CP and healthy children (p < 0.001). In healthy children, knee height (KH) and lower-leg length (LLL) were similar to standing height. The correlation coefficients between height and alternative measures as well as correlations between the heights estimated by alternative measures were higher in children with CP than in healthy children.

Conclusion: KH was the most appropriate measurement to estimate height in children with spastic quadriplegic CP and in healthy children. In the absence of a segmometer, height can be estimated by LLL in children with spastic quadriplegic CP and healthy children. The anthropometric indexes height/age and BMI were more appropriately obtained by the height estimated by KH or LLL.