Calvin Prof Works on New Growth Curve Charts

August 16, 2005 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Visits to a pediatrician next year might look a little different thanks to a
new growth curve chart slated to be released in the spring of 2006.

And a Calvin College professor is currently working in Geneva, Switzerland
getting ready for that release.

Allen Shoemaker, a professor of psychology, is back in Geneva for the month of
August working with the World Health Organization. He first hooked up with the
WHO in 1997 when he spent a sabbatical analyzing data on child growth rates.

Now, says Shoemaker, based on his work and other research the WHO is going
ahead with its plan to publish new growth curve charts. In fact he is spending
the month of August reanalyzing nations' growth rates against the new growth
curves.

The old curves, Shoemaker says, were largely based on just U.S. children, many
of whom were bottle fed. The WHO, he notes, advocates breast feeding, which
generates a different growth rate.

"Because of these concerns, he says, "the World Health Organization is
developing new growth curves based on healthy children from several nations
around the world."

And, he notes, whereas the last curve was largely descriptive, this one will
be prescriptive.

"The new curves," he says, "could affect the number of children classified as
malnourished."

Shoemaker says that the new curves are classified because the WHO wants the
results analyzed free from any political influence.

"Several developing nations," he says, "might be concerned about having a
higher rate of malnourished children compared to the old charts, but they will
have to wait along with everyone else. The new curves and how nations compare
against them won't be released until they are all ready in the spring of
2006."

For the full story see www.calvin.edu/news

Contact Shoemaker at shoe@calvin.edu or after August 31 at 616-526-8536

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Received on Tue Aug 16 10:42:39 2005