Head circumference values among Inuit children in Nunavut, Canada: a retrospective cohort study.
Journal
CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne
ISSN: 1488-2329
Titre abrégé: CMAJ
Pays: Canada
ID NLM: 9711805
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
21 Oct 2024
21 Oct 2024
Historique:
accepted:
11
09
2024
medline:
22
10
2024
pubmed:
22
10
2024
entrez:
21
10
2024
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
Inuit children from Nunavut have been observed to have high rates of macrocephaly, which sometimes leads to burdensome travel for medical evaluation, often with no pathology identified upon assessment. Given reports that World Health Organization (WHO) growth charts may not reflect all populations, we sought to compare head circumference measurements in a cohort of Inuit children with the WHO charts. We extracted head circumference data from a previous retrospective cohort study where, with Inuit partnership, we reviewed medical records of Inuit children (from birth to age 5 yr) born between Jan. 1, 2010, and Dec. 31, 2013, and residing in Nunavut. To create a cohort of Inuit children similar to the cohorts used in the development of the WHO growth charts, we excluded children with preterm birth, documented neurologic or genetic disease, and most congenital anomalies. We compared head circumference values with the 2007 WHO charts using centiles estimated with a generalized additive model. We analyzed records of 1960 Inuit children (8866 data points), of whom 993 (50.8%) were female. Most data were from ages 0 to 36 months. At all age points, we found that the study cohort had statistically significantly larger head circumferences than WHO medians, with most Our results support the observation that Inuit children from Nunavut have larger head circumferences than other populations, and use of the WHO charts may thus lead to overdiagnosis of macrocephaly and underdiagnosis of microcephaly. Population-specific growth curves for Inuit children should be considered to provide timely and appropriate diagnoses of microcephaly and avoid overinvestigation of macrocephaly.
Sections du résumé
BACKGROUND
BACKGROUND
Inuit children from Nunavut have been observed to have high rates of macrocephaly, which sometimes leads to burdensome travel for medical evaluation, often with no pathology identified upon assessment. Given reports that World Health Organization (WHO) growth charts may not reflect all populations, we sought to compare head circumference measurements in a cohort of Inuit children with the WHO charts.
METHODS
METHODS
We extracted head circumference data from a previous retrospective cohort study where, with Inuit partnership, we reviewed medical records of Inuit children (from birth to age 5 yr) born between Jan. 1, 2010, and Dec. 31, 2013, and residing in Nunavut. To create a cohort of Inuit children similar to the cohorts used in the development of the WHO growth charts, we excluded children with preterm birth, documented neurologic or genetic disease, and most congenital anomalies. We compared head circumference values with the 2007 WHO charts using centiles estimated with a generalized additive model.
RESULTS
RESULTS
We analyzed records of 1960 Inuit children (8866 data points), of whom 993 (50.8%) were female. Most data were from ages 0 to 36 months. At all age points, we found that the study cohort had statistically significantly larger head circumferences than WHO medians, with most
INTERPRETATION
CONCLUSIONS
Our results support the observation that Inuit children from Nunavut have larger head circumferences than other populations, and use of the WHO charts may thus lead to overdiagnosis of macrocephaly and underdiagnosis of microcephaly. Population-specific growth curves for Inuit children should be considered to provide timely and appropriate diagnoses of microcephaly and avoid overinvestigation of macrocephaly.
Identifiants
pubmed: 39433315
pii: 196/35/E1189
doi: 10.1503/cmaj.230905
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
E1189-E1200Informations de copyright
© 2024 CMA Impact Inc. or its licensors.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
Competing interests:: Amber Miners sits on the executive committee of the Canadian Paediatric Society and is the representative for Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and the Yukon. No other competing interests were declared.