Comparison of Frame Index reference percentiles in Argentine and European boys and girls

NAVAZO B; GARRAZA M; TORRES MF; DAHINTEN S; QUINTERO FA; CESANI MF

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN BIOLOGY

WILEY-LISS, DIV JOHN WILEY & SONS INC

Lugar: New York; Año: 2023

1042-0533

Introduction: The Frame Index (FI), based on measurements of elbow breadth and height, is thebody frame size parameter most frequently used in child and adolescent populations to assessskeletal robustness. In 2018, the first FI reference percentiles were elaborated with data of boysand girls aged 0-18 years from different European populations. In Argentina, the FI referencevalues were published in 2022.Objective: The present study aims to compare the Argentine (AR) and European (EU) FIreference percentiles to evaluate possible variation in bone robustness between populations.Methods: The values of the 3rd, 50th and 97th percentiles of the AR and EU FI references forboys and girls aged 4-14 years were compared using the Wilcoxon test (p < 0.05). Percentagedifferences between means (PDM) were calculated to analyze the magnitude of the differencesbetween both references. The R 3.2.0 program was used to plot the percentile curves.Results: The FI reference values were lower in AR than in EU in both the 3rd and the 50thpercentiles, regardless of sex and age. Conversely, the AR reference values of the 97th percentilewere higher than the EU values at most ages.Conclusions: The comparison of the AR and EU FI references showed similar age and sexgrowth patterns. However, differences in percentile values between populations were observed,highlighting the importance of having local references for the evaluation of skeletal robustness.