Frequency of actual short height in patients who apply to the endocrinology polyclinic with short height complaints

Height increase is an important parameter in the evaluation of growth and development in children. The complaint of short stature is a common reason for admission to primary care and pediatric outpatient clinics, and the patients who apply do not have high rates of short stature. The aim of this thesis study is to reveal the actual short stature in patients who apply to the pediatric endocrinology outpatient clinic with complaints of short stature. The study is a cross-sectional study and data was collected retrospectively by scanning the files of patients who applied between 01.06.2022 and 01.02.2023 with complaints of short stature. Ethics committee approval was received for the study. SPSS 27.0 program was used in statistical analysis and chi-square analysis was applied. 823 patients who applied with short stature were included in the study, 393 of the patients were girls (47.8%) and 430 (52.2%) were boys. The average calendar age of the patients was 9±3.7 years and the average height SDS value was -1.63±1. While 37.2% (n=306) of the patients had a height SDS value of -2 or less and had short stature, 62.8% (n=517) had no short stature. There was no significant relationship between the presence of short stature and gender, BMI SDS, calendar age, SGA history, chronic disease and anemia (p değeri sırasıyla 0,108, 0,408, 0,507, 0,837, 0,682). When comparing patients with short stature according to their age groups, the rate of short stature was found to be higher in the 12-18 age range (p<0.001). When comparing patients with short stature according to their pubertal status, the rate of short stature in patients in the pubertal period was found to be statistically significant (p = 0.006). It was observed that 56.9% of the patients (n=461) applied to the polyclinic with the recommendation of their family or an acquaintance, and among those who were diagnosed with short stature, they were referred by a physician, which was statistically more significant (p<0.001). As a result, in our study, it was observed that the patients who presented with short stature did not have a high rate of short stature, those with short stature were more likely to be referred by a physician, and short stature was more common in the pubertal period or between the ages of 12-18. Key Words: Short Stature, Growth Retardation, SDS, Percentile