• DOI:10.1542/peds.2011-1472
• Corpus ID: 1708728

Weight and Mortality Rates: “Gómez Classification” for Children With Cerebral Palsy?

@article{Stevenson2011WeightAM,
  title={Weight and Mortality Rates: “G{\'o}mez Classification” for Children With Cerebral Palsy?},
  author={Richard D Stevenson and Mark R. Conaway},
  journal={Pediatrics},
  year={2011},
  volume={128},
  pages={e436 - e437}
}

• R. Stevenson, M. Conaway
• Published 1 August 2011
• Medicine
• Pediatrics

The study of the relationship between body weight and mortality rates has a prominent history in pediatric medicine. In a classic article from 1956 (reprinted in 20001), Gomez and Galvan reported factors associated with death for a group of malnourished children admitted to a hospital in Mexico City, Mexico. Those authors defined categories of malnutrition (first, second, and third degree), solely on the basis of expected weight for age, that were associated with mortality risk. Children with third-degree malnutrition, defined as having a body weight <60% of the median weight for age, had a markedly increased risk of death, independent of other factors. These categories, with some modification, were ultimately referred to as the Gomez classification of malnutrition.2 This classification, and others that followed, included the essential elements of an anthropometric indicator, a reference population for comparison, and cutoff points for various degrees of malnutrition. In this issue of Pediatrics , Brooks et al3 “borrowed a page” from Gomez and Galvan; they chose the anthropometric indicator of weight, expanded their previous work developing growth charts for children with …

Address correspondence to Richard D. Stevenson, MD, Department of Pediatrics, Kluge Children's Rehabilitation Center, University of Virginia, 2270 Ivy Rd, Charlottesville, VA 22903. E-mail: rds8z{at}virginia.edu