Paley et al has developed the multiplier method for predicting leg length. It is a tool that is used clinically to predict leg length discrepancy. The method is also a way of comparing different populations, to identify differences in growth trajectory. This has been done by identifying the differing multipliers for girls and boys. However it has not been used to identify trends in populations separated by time. Tanner showed that in the first half of the twentieth century girls went from an average age of menarche of 15 in 1900, to 13 in 1970, how this has affected growth trajectory over the last 50 years has not been studied. The multiplier method is based on data collected in the 1950's by Anderson and Green, we aim to assess whether there has been a change in growth trajectory between this historical cohort and a contemporary European based cohort.Background:
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Paley et al has developed a multiplier method for calculating both leg length and total height. In the development of this algorithm, they evaluated the effect of factors including bone age and sex. They established that sex had a significant impact, but adjusting for bone age did not improve accuracy. Bone age and menarche have been shown to improve other height prediction models. We used a large prospective cohort to evaluate if the multiplier is independent of physiological age using menarche as a proxy.Introduction:
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