Longitudinal analysis of adolescent growth of foot length and stature of children living in Ogi area of Japan: a 12 years data.

Adolescent growth of foot length (FL) and stature were investigated in a sample of 586 children living in the Ogi area of Saga Prefecture Japan, who were traced longitudinally from 6.5 to 17.5 years of age. FL growth and its relationship to height were analyzed using the JPA2 model and the Optimal Kernel Method to fit the serial data of stature and FL. The results demonstrated that there was clear peak growth velocity (PGV) during the adolescent growth period of FL for most of the children; before 11.5 years of age there was no essential difference in mean foot length between girls and boys; the completion of FL growth was on average two years earlier than that of stature and two and a half years after the appearance of the peak height velocity (PHV); girls completed the FL growth two years earlier than boys; the longer the growth period for FL or the larger the value of FL at an early age the bigger the adult foot length; the foot grew in synchrony with the body as a whole.