Stunted GrowthCGDELNCT05419336
Child Growth and Development in East London
An observational study of Stunted Growth and Stunting, run by Queen Mary University of London at 1 site in United Kingdom.
Trial summary
The overarching objective of this research is to detect poor growth and delayed development early in childhood by developing an automated growth-screening algorithm. The screening algorithm will be created using cohort data and piloted for feasibility and acceptability in Tower Hamlets. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 24 to 30 months
- Conditions the study is for
- Stunted Growth, Stunting, Growth Disorders
- How many people
- 558 participants
- Where
- 1 siteUnited Kingdom
- Study dates
- 15 Jul 2022to 30 Sep 2024
- Phase
- Observational
- Are there results?
- None posted in the registry
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 24 to 30 months
- All sexes
- Child
Study population: Children randomly chosen from London borough of Tower Hamlets, based on Health Visitor records. All children will have height and weight measured as part of standard care by a Health Visitor or nursery nurse in the community, and caregivers are asked to complete a development questionnaire at age 2- 2.5 years as standard. Caregivers will be approached about taking part in the study and given information about what this involves.
Who may be able to join
- Children aged 2-2.5 years, who live in Tower Hamlets and whose caregiver(s) are willing to provide written informed consent
Who cannot join
- The caregiver does not provide written informed consent
- The child is not able to stand for an accurate height measurement
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country.
About this study
The overarching objective of this research is to detect poor growth and delayed development early in childhood by developing an automated growth-screening algorithm. The screening algorithm will be created using cohort data and piloted for feasibility and acceptability in Tower Hamlets. The ultimate goals are to detect linear growth failure and delayed development early to identify two groups of children: first, children with serious underlying medical disorders, in whom earlier diagnosis and management would improve clinical outcomes; and second, children whose poor growth and/or delayed development is a manifestation of socioeconomic disadvantage, in whom targeted pre-school interventions may improve long term health and education outcomes.
Read the detailed description
Aim 1, Pilot an automated growth screening algorithm in Tower Hamlets
600 pre-school children at age 2-2.5 years will be enrolled into a pilot screening programme, following written informed parental consent. Children will be identified when they have their 2-2.5 year contact as part of the Healthy Child Programme. As per standard care, measures will be taken of the child's height using a stadiometer and weight using digital weighing scales. In addition to these measurements will be the child's head circumference, their height using a phone App and a record taken of previous anthropometric data including birthweight from the Personal Health Record. Parents' heights will also be recorded where possible. Next, families will be offered an additional height measurement at 3-3.5 years in the community, which is not currently part of standard care. Child height will then be recorded as part of the routine National Child Measurement Programme at 4-5 years of age, and linked to primary care data, enabling the growth-screening algorithm to be applied to these three data-points (2-2.5 years, 3-3.5 years and 4-5 years). At each height measurement the study team will identify the 2% of children with the poorest growth, in whom prior studies show a high prevalence (30-40%) of medical disorders and contact parents to offer referral to the paediatric endocrinology clinic at the Royal London Hospital. The study team will evaluate acceptability and feasibility of the screening and referral process, using parental and healthcare professional questionnaires. There will be an evaluation of the uptake by calculating the proportions screened, referred, investigated in clinic and diagnosed with medical disorders.
Focus group discussions will also be held with caregivers (one in English language and one in Sylheti) and with Health Visitors, to get an idea of how they feel about screening and identify potential barriers to a larger scale roll out.
Aim 2, Generate pilot data to investigate the best indicators to detect poor school readiness and/or developmental problems in early childhood.
As part of routine care, each child's development will be assessed using both the caregiver and professional components of the The Ages \& Stages Questionnaire (ASQ-3). Following the 2-2.5 year contact, a subset of children (n = 150) will be invited to attend a separate appointment in the community to have a more detailed developmental assessment to measure gross motor, fine motor, social, language, visual-spatial and practical reasoning skills, conducted or supervised by a child psychologist. These data will be used to conduct sensitivity analyses to test the hypothesis that linear growth failure either alone or in combination with additional factors identifies children with reduced neurodevelopment, who are therefore at risk of poor school attainment.
- Conditions
- Stunted Growth, Stunting, Growth Disorders, Child Development
- Keywords
- Stunting, Stunted Growth, Growth Screening
- Medical subject headings
- Growth Disorders
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Feasibility and acceptability of the screening pilot
Feasibility will be assessed using Bowen et al.'s '8 areas of focus': acceptability, demand, implementation, practicality, adaptation, integration, expansion and limited-efficacy testing. To achieve this, a mixed methods evaluation will be employed including qualitative data collection using focus groups with caregivers and health visitors as well as questionnaires distributed to all caregiver participants in the study and all health visitors involved in growth and development assessments. Quantitative data will be collected on: uptake of growth measurements; number of successful growth and development measurements; number of referrals successfully completed (i.e. referred to child growth clinic with participant attending one clinic appointment); number of participants consenting to identification of their child's anthropometric data from National Child Measurement Programme; and uptake of the phone app.
Measured: 3 years
Secondary outcomes (1)
Linear Growth trajectory and child development
This will be assessed by child height measurements at age 2-2.5 years, age 3-3.5 years, and age 4-5 years, in combination with target parental height. Parents who make use of the app will provide additional longitudinal growth measurements between age 2-5 years. All measurements will be entered into an algorithm, developed using data from two longitudinal United Kingdom cohorts (Millennium Cohort Study and Born in Bradford), which will identify children with poor linear growth based on absolute height, growth velocity and distance from target height.
Measured: 3 years
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted15 Jun 2022
- Study start15 Jul 2022
- Primary completion30 Mar 2024
- Study completion30 Sep 2024
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Publications (7)Papers the sponsor has linked to this study.
- Other trials for Stunted GrowthStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- More trials run by Queen Mary University of LondonThe sponsor's other registered studies.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Observational
- Observational model
- Cohort
- Time perspective
- Prospective
- Enrolment
- 558 participants (actual)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- Queen Mary University of London
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- Barts & The London NHS Trust, Child Growth Foundation, The Patients Association
- Responsible party
- Sponsor
- Investigators
- Prof Andrew Prendergast, DPhil MRCPCH, Principal investigator, Queen Mary
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT05419336
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- 275717
- Acronym
- CGDEL
- Status last verified
- May 2025
- First submitted
- 10 Jun 2022
- Last updated
- 20 May 2025
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
Publications
Ahmed ML, Allen AD, Sharma A, Macfarlane JA, Dunger DB. Evaluation of a district growth screening programme: the Oxford Growth Study. Arch Dis Child. 1993 Sep;69(3):361-5. doi: 10.1136/adc.69.3.361.
PubMed 7692826Green AA, MacFarlane JA. Method for the earlier recognition of abnormal stature. Arch Dis Child. 1983 Jul;58(7):535-7. doi: 10.1136/adc.58.7.535.
PubMed 6870335Rogol AD, Hayden GF. Etiologies and early diagnosis of short stature and growth failure in children and adolescents. J Pediatr. 2014 May;164(5 Suppl):S1-14.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2014.02.027.
PubMed 24731744Maghnie M, Labarta JI, Koledova E, Rohrer TR. Short Stature Diagnosis and Referral. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2018 Jan 11;8:374. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2017.00374. eCollection 2017.
PubMed 29375479Sankilampi U, Saari A, Laine T, Miettinen PJ, Dunkel L. Use of electronic health records for automated screening of growth disorders in primary care. JAMA. 2013 Sep 11;310(10):1071-2. doi: 10.1001/jama.2013.218793. No abstract available.
PubMed 24026604Jelenkovic A, Sund R, Hur YM, Yokoyama Y, Hjelmborg JV, Moller S, Honda C, Magnusson PK, Pedersen NL, Ooki S, Aaltonen S, Stazi MA, Fagnani C, D'Ippolito C, Freitas DL, Maia JA, Ji F, Ning F, Pang Z, Rebato E, Busjahn A, Kandler C, Saudino KJ, Jang KL, Cozen W, Hwang AE, Mack TM, Gao W, Yu C, Li L, Corley RP, Huibregtse BM, Derom CA, Vlietinck RF, Loos RJ, Heikkila K, Wardle J, Llewellyn CH, Fisher A, McAdams TA, Eley TC, Gregory AM, He M, Ding X, Bjerregaard-Andersen M, Beck-Nielsen H, Sodemann M, Tarnoki AD, Tarnoki DL, Knafo-Noam A, Mankuta D, Abramson L, Burt SA, Klump KL, Silberg JL, Eaves LJ, Maes HH, Krueger RF, McGue M, Pahlen S, Gatz M, Butler DA, Bartels M, van Beijsterveldt TC, Craig JM, Saffery R, Dubois L, Boivin M, Brendgen M, Dionne G, Vitaro F, Martin NG, Medland SE, Montgomery GW, Swan GE, Krasnow R, Tynelius P, Lichtenstein P, Haworth CM, Plomin R, Bayasgalan G, Narandalai D, Harden KP, Tucker-Drob EM, Spector T, Mangino M, Lachance G, Baker LA, Tuvblad C, Duncan GE, Buchwald D, Willemsen G, Skytthe A, Kyvik KO, Christensen K, Oncel SY, Aliev F, Rasmussen F, Goldberg JH, Sorensen TI, Boomsma DI, Kaprio J, Silventoinen K. Genetic and environmental influences on height from infancy to early adulthood: An individual-based pooled analysis of 45 twin cohorts. Sci Rep. 2016 Jun 23;6:28496. doi: 10.1038/srep28496.
PubMed 27333805Hauer NN, Popp B, Schoeller E, Schuhmann S, Heath KE, Hisado-Oliva A, Klinger P, Kraus C, Trautmann U, Zenker M, Zweier C, Wiesener A, Abou Jamra R, Kunstmann E, Wieczorek D, Uebe S, Ferrazzi F, Buttner C, Ekici AB, Rauch A, Sticht H, Dorr HG, Reis A, Thiel CT. Clinical relevance of systematic phenotyping and exome sequencing in patients with short stature. Genet Med. 2018 Jun;20(6):630-638. doi: 10.1038/gim.2017.159. Epub 2017 Oct 12.
PubMed 29758562
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 20 May 2025. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Child Growth and Development in East London
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT05419336
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- CGDEL / 275717
- Conditions
- Stunted Growth, Stunting, Growth Disorders, Child Development
- Keywords
- Stunting, Stunted Growth, Growth Screening
- Study type
- Observational
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Enrolment
- 558 participants (actual)
- Lead sponsor
- Queen Mary University of LondonUniversity, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- Barts & The London NHS Trust, Child Growth Foundation, The Patients Association
- Study start
- 15 Jul 2022 (actual)
- Primary completion
- 30 Mar 2024 (actual)
- Study completion
- 30 Sep 2024 (actual)
- First posted
- 15 Jun 2022 (actual)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
The overarching objective of this research is to detect poor growth and delayed development early in childhood by developing an automated growth-screening algorithm. The screening algorithm will be created using cohort data and piloted for feasibility and acceptability in Tower Hamlets. The ultimate goals are to detect linear growth failure and delayed development early to identify two groups of children: first, children with serious underlying medical disorders, in whom earlier diagnosis and management would improve clinical outcomes; and second, children whose poor growth and/or delayed development is a manifestation of socioeconomic disadvantage, in whom targeted pre-school interventions may improve long term health and education outcomes.
Detailed description
Aim 1, Pilot an automated growth screening algorithm in Tower Hamlets
600 pre-school children at age 2-2.5 years will be enrolled into a pilot screening programme, following written informed parental consent. Children will be identified when they have their 2-2.5 year contact as part of the Healthy Child Programme. As per standard care, measures will be taken of the child's height using a stadiometer and weight using digital weighing scales. In addition to these measurements will be the child's head circumference, their height using a phone App and a record taken of previous anthropometric data including birthweight from the Personal Health Record. Parents' heights will also be recorded where possible. Next, families will be offered an additional height measurement at 3-3.5 years in the community, which is not currently part of standard care. Child height will then be recorded as part of the routine National Child Measurement Programme at 4-5 years of age, and linked to primary care data, enabling the growth-screening algorithm to be applied to these three data-points (2-2.5 years, 3-3.5 years and 4-5 years). At each height measurement the study team will identify the 2% of children with the poorest growth, in whom prior studies show a high prevalence (30-40%) of medical disorders and contact parents to offer referral to the paediatric endocrinology clinic at the Royal London Hospital. The study team will evaluate acceptability and feasibility of the screening and referral process, using parental and healthcare professional questionnaires. There will be an evaluation of the uptake by calculating the proportions screened, referred, investigated in clinic and diagnosed with medical disorders.
Focus group discussions will also be held with caregivers (one in English language and one in Sylheti) and with Health Visitors, to get an idea of how they feel about screening and identify potential barriers to a larger scale roll out.
Aim 2, Generate pilot data to investigate the best indicators to detect poor school readiness and/or developmental problems in early childhood.
As part of routine care, each child's development will be assessed using both the caregiver and professional components of the The Ages \& Stages Questionnaire (ASQ-3). Following the 2-2.5 year contact, a subset of children (n = 150) will be invited to attend a separate appointment in the community to have a more detailed developmental assessment to measure gross motor, fine motor, social, language, visual-spatial and practical reasoning skills, conducted or supervised by a child psychologist. These data will be used to conduct sensitivity analyses to test the hypothesis that linear growth failure either alone or in combination with additional factors identifies children with reduced neurodevelopment, who are therefore at risk of poor school attainment.
Study design
- Observational model
- Cohort
- Time perspective
- Prospective
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 24 to 30 months
- Sex
- All
- Age groups
- Child
- Study population
- Children randomly chosen from London borough of Tower Hamlets, based on Health Visitor records. All children will have height and weight measured as part of standard care by a Health Visitor or nursery nurse in the community, and caregivers are asked to complete a development questionnaire at age 2- 2.5 years as standard. Caregivers will be approached about taking part in the study and given information about what this involves.
Key inclusion criteria (1 listed)
- Children aged 2-2.5 years, who live in Tower Hamlets and whose caregiver(s) are willing to provide written informed consent
Key exclusion criteria (2 listed)
- The caregiver does not provide written informed consent
- The child is not able to stand for an accurate height measurement
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Primary outcome
Feasibility and acceptability of the screening pilot
Time frame: 3 years
Feasibility will be assessed using Bowen et al.'s '8 areas of focus': acceptability, demand, implementation, practicality, adaptation, integration, expansion and limited-efficacy testing. To achieve this, a mixed methods evaluation will be employed including qualitative data collection using focus groups with caregivers and health visitors as well as questionnaires distributed to all caregiver participants in the study and all health visitors involved in growth and development assessments. Quantitative data will be collected on: uptake of growth measurements; number of successful growth and development measurements; number of referrals successfully completed (i.e. referred to child growth clinic with participant attending one clinic appointment); number of participants consenting to identification of their child's anthropometric data from National Child Measurement Programme; and uptake of the phone app.
1 secondary outcome
Linear Growth trajectory and child development
Time frame: 3 years
Results and safety
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 20 May 2025.
- Background: PubMed 7692826Ahmed ML, Allen AD, Sharma A, Macfarlane JA, Dunger DB. Evaluation of a district growth screening programme: the Oxford Growth Study. Arch Dis Child. 1993 Sep;69(3):361-5. doi: 10.1136/adc.69.3.361.
- Background: PubMed 6870335Green AA, MacFarlane JA. Method for the earlier recognition of abnormal stature. Arch Dis Child. 1983 Jul;58(7):535-7. doi: 10.1136/adc.58.7.535.
- Background: PubMed 24731744Rogol AD, Hayden GF. Etiologies and early diagnosis of short stature and growth failure in children and adolescents. J Pediatr. 2014 May;164(5 Suppl):S1-14.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2014.02.027.
- Background: PubMed 29375479Maghnie M, Labarta JI, Koledova E, Rohrer TR. Short Stature Diagnosis and Referral. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2018 Jan 11;8:374. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2017.00374. eCollection 2017.
- Background: PubMed 24026604Sankilampi U, Saari A, Laine T, Miettinen PJ, Dunkel L. Use of electronic health records for automated screening of growth disorders in primary care. JAMA. 2013 Sep 11;310(10):1071-2. doi: 10.1001/jama.2013.218793. No abstract available.
- Background: PubMed 27333805Jelenkovic A, Sund R, Hur YM, Yokoyama Y, Hjelmborg JV, Moller S, Honda C, Magnusson PK, Pedersen NL, Ooki S, Aaltonen S, Stazi MA, Fagnani C, D'Ippolito C, Freitas DL, Maia JA, Ji F, Ning F, Pang Z, Rebato E, Busjahn A, Kandler C, Saudino KJ, Jang KL, Cozen W, Hwang AE, Mack TM, Gao W, Yu C, Li L, Corley RP, Huibregtse BM, Derom CA, Vlietinck RF, Loos RJ, Heikkila K, Wardle J, Llewellyn CH, Fisher A, McAdams TA, Eley TC, Gregory AM, He M, Ding X, Bjerregaard-Andersen M, Beck-Nielsen H, Sodemann M, Tarnoki AD, Tarnoki DL, Knafo-Noam A, Mankuta D, Abramson L, Burt SA, Klump KL, Silberg JL, Eaves LJ, Maes HH, Krueger RF, McGue M, Pahlen S, Gatz M, Butler DA, Bartels M, van Beijsterveldt TC, Craig JM, Saffery R, Dubois L, Boivin M, Brendgen M, Dionne G, Vitaro F, Martin NG, Medland SE, Montgomery GW, Swan GE, Krasnow R, Tynelius P, Lichtenstein P, Haworth CM, Plomin R, Bayasgalan G, Narandalai D, Harden KP, Tucker-Drob EM, Spector T, Mangino M, Lachance G, Baker LA, Tuvblad C, Duncan GE, Buchwald D, Willemsen G, Skytthe A, Kyvik KO, Christensen K, Oncel SY, Aliev F, Rasmussen F, Goldberg JH, Sorensen TI, Boomsma DI, Kaprio J, Silventoinen K. Genetic and environmental influences on height from infancy to early adulthood: An individual-based pooled analysis of 45 twin cohorts. Sci Rep. 2016 Jun 23;6:28496. doi: 10.1038/srep28496.
- Background: PubMed 29758562Hauer NN, Popp B, Schoeller E, Schuhmann S, Heath KE, Hisado-Oliva A, Klinger P, Kraus C, Trautmann U, Zenker M, Zweier C, Wiesener A, Abou Jamra R, Kunstmann E, Wieczorek D, Uebe S, Ferrazzi F, Buttner C, Ekici AB, Rauch A, Sticht H, Dorr HG, Reis A, Thiel CT. Clinical relevance of systematic phenotyping and exome sequencing in patients with short stature. Genet Med. 2018 Jun;20(6):630-638. doi: 10.1038/gim.2017.159. Epub 2017 Oct 12.
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Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part. This study is not recruiting at the moment.
Prof Andrew Prendergast, DPhil MRCPCH principal investigator
Queen Mary
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
An observational study of Stunted Growth and Stunting, run by Queen Mary University of London at 1 site in United Kingdom.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 1 inclusion and 2 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 20 May 2025. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in United Kingdom. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Feasibility and acceptability of the screening pilot (time frame: 3 years). It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT05419336, which also lists 7 linked publications.
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 20 May 2025.