Childhood obesity and skeletal maturation assessed with Fishman’s hand-wrist analysis

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to determine whether increased body mass index is associated with accelerated skeletal maturation. Methods: The skeletal ages of 107 children, aged 9 to 16 years, were determined by using Fishman’s hand-wrist analysis. The difference between chronologic age and dental age was analyzed against body mass index, sex, and age. Results: The mean differences between chronologic and skeletal ages for normal weight, overweight, and obese subjects were 0.51 years, 0.44 years, and 1.00 years, respectively. Although there was a trend for obese subjects to have accelerated skeletal maturation compared with overweight and normal-weight subjects, the difference was not statistically significant. Skeletal age differences significantly decreased with increasing age. The mean skeletal age differences were 0.90 year for 9- to 13-year-olds and 0.26 year for 13- to 16-year-olds. Mean skeletal age did not differ significantly by sex. Conclusions: Overweight or obese children did not have significantly accelerated skeletal maturation after adjusting for age and sex.