Monitoring adolescent weight from routine weight measurements at health centres can be effective for screening. Currently there is no weight monitoring tool for the 10 – 15 years age group for use in under-resourced health centres in many developing countries where body mass index determination is not practical. The aim was to demonstrate application of the LMS chartmaker method to develop a weight-for-age monitoring charts, z-scores for adolescents 10-15 years old and a comparison with the CDC 2000 and WHO 2007 references. We used sample data from a large cross-sectional study of 1114 black South African North-West province adolescents. The LMS chartmaker® Light was used to develop growth charts and determination of z-scores. Boys and Girls charts were developed with 7 percentiles. At the 3rd percentile for boys and girls our charts were lower than either the CDC 2000 or the WHO 2007. At the 97th percentile for boys, our charts were lower than the CDC 2000 and WHO 2007. For girls it was higher than the WHO 2007 by 1 unit and lower than the CDC 2000 by 5 units. Our median z-scores both boys and girls were lower than the medians of the CDC 2000 and WHO 2007 references. Our study can directly inform decisions on the best reference for use by South African medical professionals for anthropometric screening of adolescent’s. Making use of the LMS chartmaker method can provide alternative charts that can be developed using local data and applied in under-resourced settings or other circumstances where it’s practical.

WEIGHT-FOR – AGE PERCENTILES AND Z-SCORES FOR ADOLESCENTS AGED 10-15YEARS: AN APPLICATION OF THE LMS CHARTMAKER METHOD