Comments to zscorer R packages

[ernestguevarra]

Dear zcorer developers,
First of all congratulations for the nice packages. Just to add a comment: I am wondering if it is possible to include an option for: weight for gestational age (and not just age), height for gestational age…
Thank you,

Sara Domínguez Rodríguez
Biostatistician & Data Manager- Pediatric Infectious Disease Service
Fundación de Investigación Hospital 12 Octubre
Av. Cordoba, s/n, 28041 Madrid
sara.dominguez.r@gmail.com
sara.dominguez@universidadeuropea.es

[ernestguevarra]

Hello,

Thank you for your interest in the zscorer package.

I acknowledge your request for weight for gestational age and height for gestational age calculator. We have thought of that but our current development pathway is that we want to focus zscorer as a z-score calculator specific for the World Health Organisation Growth Standards (WGS). In these standards, there are no specification for gestational age standardisation.

However, we have gotten requests other than yours for calculators for weight for gestational age and height for gestational age. We are currently developing a package which we are calling intergrowth which will use the growth standards developed by the Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Oxford University called the INTERGROWTH-21st (http://intergrowth21.ndog.ox.ac.uk). As far as I know, these are the most robust and reliable standards for the this age group currently available hence we are focusing on developing this as a separate package.

The main rationale for separating the two packages is to make maintenance of the packages and development much easier. Since we have already released zscorer, it is much easier to develop and maintain that as a standalone package and then just make a new one specific to the INTERGROWTH standards.

Apologies for the delayed reply and I am sorry that my response might be unsatisfactory. Do let me know if you would like me to update you of progress on the intergrowth package and whether you would like to contribute to that development?

Thanks again for you interest and input.