American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 51, 917S-924S, Copyright © 1990 by The American Society for Nutrition

Reference data for weight, stature, and weight/stature² in Mexican Americans from the Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HHANES 1982-1984)

¹ From the Division of Human Biology, Department of Pediatrics, Wright State University School of Medicine, Yellow Springs, OH, Ross Laboratories, Columbus, OH, and The National Center for Health, Statistics, Hyattsville, MD

Data for weight, stature, and weight/stature² from 3580 Mexican-American children from the HHANES survey have been used to obtain selected age- and sex-specific empirical percentiles. These have been compared with corresponding percentiles for white children in the NHANES II survey. There were no significant differences between these data sets (p < 0.05) for weight in males but the 50th and 95th percentiles were significantly higher for female Mexican Americans. After about 12 y, the upper stature percentiles in the boys and all stature percentiles in the girls tended to be lower in the Mexican Americans. These differences were significant for the 50th and 90th percentiles in the females but not for any percentiles in the males. In each sex, almost all the weight/stature² percentile levels were significantly higher in the Mexican Americans.

Key Words: Weight • stature • weight/stature² • Mexican Americans • reference data

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