Creating Global Developmental Norms for Young Children: Opportunities and Challenges

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Global norms of young children’s growth from the WHO’s Multicenter Growth Reference Study revolutionized the monitoring of and intervention in health and nutrition for young children aged 0-3.

International longitudinal data showed that children not experiencing nutritional or environmental constraints grew along similar trajectories of weight and height. Subsequent age- and gender-specific growth norms for weight and height have been adopted by over 140 countries worldwide and serve as key population-level indicators, outcomes for interventions, and individual diagnosis.

Recent research suggests similar patterns in the attainment of developmental milestones. The current study discusses the creation of Development-for-Age (DAZ) scores using the Global Scales of Early Development (GSED) for children under age three.
Global norms will be based on a diverse sample of children without significant nutritional or environmental constraints living in six countries. This panel examines the theoretical, practical, and methodological challenges that creating global norms pose and how the GSED project is addressing them.

Paper 1 reviews the process used to operationalize “children living without nutritional and environmental constraints” considering existing literature, expert opinions, and practical constraints of sample recruitment.

Paper 2 focuses on the methodological and statistical challenges that global norms pose by discussing the tradeoffs of a longitudinal vs. cross-sectional sampling design and an overview of the methodology to model distributions of GSED scores conditional on age.

Paper 3 reviews the challenges posed by incorporating preterm infants. Both the plans for estimating an age-dependent correction factor and the challenges such a factor present are discussed.

Sub Unit

• Solicited Content: Global South

Chair

• Maureen Black, University of Maryland School of Medicine

Discussant

• Melissa Gladstone

Individual Presentations

• Defining multidimensional criteria for inclusion in a global norming study of early development - Presenting Author: Ann Weber, University of Nevada, Reno; Vanessa Cavallera, World Health Organization; Susanne P Martin Herz, University of California - San Francisco; Dana Charles McCoy, Harvard University; Sunil Sazawal, Johns Hopkins University; Tarun Dua, World Health Organization

• Methodological and sampling considerations for creating global norms - Presenting Author: Jonathan Seiden, Harvard University; Gareth McCray; Stef van Buuren, 1) TNO, Leiden 2) Utrecht University; Gillian Lancaster, Keele University; Marcus Waldman, Univeristy of Nebraska Medical Center

• Developing correction factors for premature infants - Presenting Author: Susanne P Martin Herz, University of California - San Francisco; Maureen Black, University of Maryland School of Medicine; Stef van Buuren, 1) TNO, Leiden 2) Utrecht University; Melissa Gladstone; Magdalena Z Janus, McMaster University; Jonathan Seiden, Harvard University