WEIGHT AND LENGTH GROWTH OF 2 CHINESE INFANT GROUPS AND THE SEASONAL EFFECTS ON THEIR GROWTH

This is a longitudinal study involving 202 Chinese infants in Chengdu City and 174 Hong Kong infants in their first two years of life. Their weight and length growth are compared, and the seasonal effects on th e early age growth for the two groups are illustrated by using a multi level model approach. The Chengdu infants are found to grow faster in the first 10 months, then stay longer, heavier and fatter for the rest of the study period. The seasonal effect on weight growth for the two groups is the same with the fastest growth in winter and slowest in s ummer and with a mean difference of about 0.16 kg. For length the fast est is in summer for Chengdu infants but in winter for Hong Kong infan ts. The difference between the slowest and fastest is about 0.49 cm fo r the two groups. The approach used in the paper is discussed from a p ractical viewpoint. The reasons for the growth differences between the two groups of Chinese infants are also discussed.