Citation

Al-Mendalawi MD. Oman Med. J. 2023; 38(5): e562.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Oman Medical Specialty Board)

DOI

10.5001/omj.2023.114

PMID

37771889

PMCID

PMC10522887

Abstract

In the January 2023 issue of the Oman Medical Journal, Lye et al,1 studied the impact of intimate partner violence (IPV) on married Iranian women on the growth and development of their children who witnessed the same. Based on the World Health Organization (WHO) body mass index (BMI) curves, the authors reported that 91.7% of children had normal weight and the remaining 8.3% were overweight or obese. There were no significant differences between the BMI Z-score and the developmental deficits in the children of women who were subjected and not subjected to IPV. The paper concluded that the rates of poor growth and development in children who witnessed IPV were low.

This brings us to a limitation of this study (which is in addition to the limitations expressed in the paper). Attempts to generate internationally applicable pediatric growth curves that reflect the prolonged period of growth in children worldwide have been fraught with difficulties.2 Thus, many countries generated their own BMI curves for clinical and research purposes.3,4 Iran has already built local BMI curves for children and adolescents and constructed key centiles and national cut-off points which were extracted from the consolidated database that represents all Iranian provinces.5

Evaluation of Iranian national BMI curves with the BMI curves developed by WHO and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed substantial differences...

Language: en