Fryar et al. (NHANES 2015-2018)
About this reference
The NCHS report (Vital and Health Statistics Series 3, No. 46) publishes survey-weighted anthropometric reference tables from the combined NHANES 2015-2016 and 2017-2018 cycles. Adult tables use 10-year age groups plus 80 and over and report selected percentiles separately by sex. Table 11 (males) and Table 9 (females) contain standing height for 10,602 adults: 5,092 males and 5,510 females. Height was measured once to the nearest 0.1 cm with a wall-mounted stadiometer. For adults, FitnessNorms reproduces the all-race P5, P25, P50, P75, and P95 values without interpolation or rebinning. For ages 2 to 19, Table 7 contains standing height and Table 1 body weight by single year of age at examination. Table 7 covers 6,167 children (3,097 boys and 3,070 girls) and Table 1 covers 6,244 (3,138 boys and 3,106 girls), with pregnant females excluded. NCHS left blank 13 of the youth percentiles that FitnessNorms shows, because their standard error could not be computed: the 5th or 95th percentile in 12 Table 7 groups, and the 5th percentile for girls aged 3 in Table 1. FitnessNorms computes every youth value from the public NHANES 2015-2018 files using examination weights, age at examination, and a weighted percentile that merges tied measurements before interpolating. That computation reproduces all 635 percentiles the two tables print, from the 5th to the 95th, and supplies the 13 blank values.
Known limitations
- US civilian noninstitutionalised population only; percentile position may differ in populations with a different height or weight distribution.
- The examination response rate was 58.7% in 2015-2016 and 48.8% in 2017-2018. NCHS adjusted the survey weights for nonresponse.
- Sample sizes are unweighted; estimates are weighted using NHANES MEC examination weights for the combined four-year period.
- Cross-sectional design: each age group is a different set of people measured in 2015-2018, so differences between age groups mix change with age and differences between birth cohorts.
- Youth values are for single years of age, with 114 to 249 children per age and sex, so neighbouring ages do not always rise in order: girls' median height is 161.2 cm at 14 and 160.0 cm at 15.
- The 13 youth percentiles NCHS did not publish describe the tails of single-year samples and are less precise than the medians.
- The report excluded pregnant females from its weight, BMI, and circumference tables, but not from the adult height tables.
- Adult age is reported as an 80-and-over bracket; finer detail above age 80 is not published.