Abstract

TRISTAN FERNANDEZ, J. M. et al. The influence of nutrition and social environment on the bone maturation of children. Nutr. Hosp. [online]. 2007, vol.22, n.4, pp.417-424. ISSN 1699-5198.

Child growth constitutes a very sensitive indicator for the assessment of their health state. Any deviation from standard parameters could entail the appearance of any congenital or acquired disorder. Identifying with precision children's bone age during their growth period can be very useful in different situations. From a clinical point of view, it is a tool for diagnosis, which can offer the possibility of monitoring treatment effects in the case of standard deviations. This is why we need to study in depth current methods and carry out regular controls that insure their reliability. Currently, the most frequent radiological methods in our country for the determination of children's bone age were designed in the middle of the 20^th century on the basis of X-rays performed on children from other countries. Thus, it would be interesting to find out whether social, economic, nutritional and health changes in Spain have influenced child growth and development in a significant way. Hence it would invalidate traditional methods for the determination of bone age. This study came from a main hypothesis: the child's environment significantly influences the concordance of bone age and chronological age. Our aim was to study a possible relationship between nutrition and bone development. Thus, the fastest way of testing this hypothesis was to implement a cross-sectional prevalence study in order to determine the percentage of children showing a chronological age concording with bone age. The study was entirely carried out in the Traumatology Hospital of Granada, which belongs to the University Hospital Virgen de las Nieves. We used the information provided by the Emergency Department about slight traumatisms. The cross-section sample was adapted to our main hypothesis. The overall number of patients was 100, which exceeds the necessary cases to test the reliability of this particular study. On the other hand, in order to determine the concordance of bone age and its different variables, an analitical study was also carried out, which includes: an univariant analysis, a bivariate analysis and a multivariate analysis, with the various tests they usually include. We found out that children showing a delayed bone age eat less bread than those showing an advanced bone age. It would be necessary to determine whether bone age and bone mass have inversely related values before considering it as concordant information. We could only determine that, currently, advanced bone maturation is usually associated with rapid growth. It is possible that children who eat more bread actually show an advanced bone age, a more rapid growth and a reduced bone mass. However, in this study, the outcomes must be considered just as preliminar, due to the size of the cross-section sample. Our research on the influence of nutrition should also include a further longitudinal study.

Keywords : Bread consumption; Bone age; Nutritional state during childhood; Children sociocultural environment.

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