Children's growth: a health indicator and a diagnostic tool

The publication of Werner and Bodin in Acta Paediatrica should inspire countries to use the growth of children as an indicator of health. The development of databases that cover all measurements of all children that have contact with healthcare and medical care will provide new knowledge in this area. Such databases will give us the opportunity to explore health in different areas of the country and to evaluate community projects in order to prevent obesity. Growth charts that are used to identify sick children or children that have other causes for growth disturbances must reflect how a healthy child should grow. If such prescriptive growth charts are computerized together with regional databases, they will provide necessary growth data for descriptive health surveys.