Body mass index and the duration of the pubertal growth spurt in Vietnamese urban children
- 1Vinmec International Hospital, Hanoi, Vietnam
Abstract
BackgroundHigher childhood body mass index (BMI) is linked to earlier and less intense pubertal growth spurts, but whether it also changes the spurt duration is rarely studied, especially in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.
MethodsWe used previously fitted Superimposition by Translation and Rotation (SITAR) growth curves for 8,018 boys and 5,491 girls in a multicity Vietnamese cohort. For each child we derived two duration measures from their own predicted velocity curve, a full width at half maximum (FWHM) measure and a threshold free growth quartile duration, and tested associations with prepubertal BMI z score before and after adjusting for pubertal timing and peak height velocity.
ResultsFWHM was identifiable in 99.9% of boys but only 18.0% of girls, and identifiable girls had systematically lower BMI, indicating informative missingness. Growth quartile duration was available for nearly all boys and 94.9% of girls. Higher BMI predicted shorter unadjusted duration in both sexes (p < 0.001 to p = 0.037). After adjustment, in boys, the association weakened but stayed significant. In girls, growth quartile duration reversed direction and remained significant (0.0052 years per unit BMI z score, p = 0.004), with a significant BMI by sex interaction (p = 0.007). Functional principal component analysis confirmed these findings independent of any single model parameter.
ConclusionPubertal growth spurt duration responds to BMI differently by sex once timing and intensity are accounted for. Full width based duration measures should be checked against each childs own available age range before use, particularly in girls.
Related
- Prepubertal Body Mass Index Reshapes the Distribution of Pubertal Growth Velocity in Vietnamese Children: A SITAR-Based Quantile Analysis
- Distinct Peri-pubertal Growth Phenotypes Among Vietnamese Urban Children: A Functional Clustering Analysis of 2018-2025 School Health Data
- Growth and Pubertal Status in Children with Type 1 Diabetes: A Cross-Sectional Comparison with Non-Diabetic Controls
- Conditional Growth References for Vietnamese Children: Quantile Regression of Growth Distributions and Phenotypes
- OP–118 Pubertal development in children with familial mediterranean fever: a cross-sectional auxological and clinical assessment
BibTeX
@misc{ho2026body,
title = {{Body mass index and the duration of the pubertal growth spurt in Vietnamese urban children}},
author = {N. T. Ho},
howpublished = {medRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.09.26362696},
url = {https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.09.26362696v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Body mass index and the duration of the pubertal growth spurt in Vietnamese urban children
AU - N. T. Ho
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/09
PB - medRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.09.26362696
UR - https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.09.26362696v1
AB - BackgroundHigher childhood body mass index (BMI) is linked to earlier and less intense pubertal growth spurts, but whether it also changes the spurt duration is rarely studied, especially in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. MethodsWe used previously fitted Superimposition by Translation and Rotation (SITAR) growth curves for 8,018 boys and 5,491 girls in a multicity Vietnamese cohort. For each child we derived two duration measures from their own predicted velocity curve, a full width at half maximum (FWHM) measure and a threshold free growth quartile duration, and tested associations with prepubertal BMI z score before and after adjusting for pubertal timing and peak height velocity. ResultsFWHM was identifiable in 99.9% of boys but only 18.0% of girls, and identifiable girls had systematically lower BMI, indicating informative missingness. Growth quartile duration was available for nearly all boys and 94.9% of girls. Higher BMI predicted shorter unadjusted duration in both sexes (p < 0.001 to p = 0.037). After adjustment, in boys, the association weakened but stayed significant. In girls, growth quartile duration reversed direction and remained significant (0.0052 years per unit BMI z score, p = 0.004), with a significant BMI by sex interaction (p = 0.007). Functional principal component analysis confirmed these findings independent of any single model parameter. ConclusionPubertal growth spurt duration responds to BMI differently by sex once timing and intensity are accounted for. Full width based duration measures should be checked against each childs own available age range before use, particularly in girls.
ER -