Endocrine Abstracts

JOINT3155

Background: A child’s growth is a diagnostic tool that can reveal diseases and psychosocial problems. Abnormal growth is a common reason for referrals to paediatric- and paediatric endocrine- clinics. Childhood obesity is a public health issue with risks of comorbidities and reduced quality of life. Children with obesity are often referred to healthcare several years after obesity onset, reducing the effectiveness of interventions. There is a lack of evidence (EBM) on when healthcare should respond to growth deviations. Current guidelines are based on expert-based guidelines, without strict EBM-knowledge. Analyzing growth can be done using automated algorithms (Finnish project), which have shown that diagnoses were made several years earlier and for more children compared to routine follow-ups. No similar project has been conducted outside Finland. The Regional Halland healthcare Information Platform (RHIP) is a comprehensive data system that collects population-wide healthcare data in the province of Halland. Halland, located in the southwest of Sweden, is the 7th (out of 21) largest province by population. The overall objective is to analyze growth deviations and study how abnormal growth is related to disease ICD10-diagnoses. The main objective is to evaluate the ability and results of Swedish expert-based guidelines and Finnish algorithms to detect individual deviations from expected growth patterns. The secondary objective is to analyze how socioeconomic factors (SES) at the family and residential level are related to growth deviations.

Methods: The study utilize RHIP. Electronic health records data from three hospitals, two emergency departments, and 46 primary care/child health care units (including private healthcare providers), including pre-birth data from obstetrics. Individuals born between 2009-2022, registered in Halland at some point between 0-6 years of age are included in the study. Longitudinal growth data from 55, 508 children, along with health and SES-data from RHIP and national registers are gathered in mean 18. 3 measurements/child.

Results: A Paediatric-RHIP is now constructed, several results will follow the coming years. Results from a pilot-study shows that there is SES inequality in 3–5-year-olds. The risk of being overweight/obese in areas with the lowest socio-economic status is 72% higher than in the most affluent quintile of residential areas.

Conclusion: Knowledge from the project may lead to optimized identification and referral of deviant growth. For the first time can EBM-guidelines of deviant growth be developed. Can give indicators of risks for future diseases and provides opportunities of targeted prevention at both residential area and individual level for improved health.