PROPUESTA METODOLóGICA PARA LA COMPARACIóN DE MEDICIONES ANTROPOMéTRICAS ENTRE UNA POBLACIóN BASE Y UNA POBLACIóN OBJETO: UNA APLICACIóN ENTRE POBLACIóN COLOMBIANA Y ESTADOUNIDENSE

background. using international growth patterns has been described as being inappropriate for describing a latin-american population's characteristics and there is limited support for guaranteeing their applicability. objective. proposing a statistical methodology for comparing and predicting a target population's anthropometric values from a base population's values. materials and methods. the kolmogorov-smirnov test was used for establishing whether there were significant differences in a local target population's anthropometric measurements and those for a base population and identifying data fit by using a simple linear regression model. results. there were significant differences between colombian and us population growth patterns; the anthropometric percentiles studied for the colombian population were lower than us ones. a greater than 90% coefficient of determination was obtained once the linear ratio had been determined; this led to stating that a linear regression model for all ages from both genders with measurements for the colombian population could be estimated from us population information. conclusions. the statistical methodology proposed here fit a target population's nutritional classification when compared to foreign reference patterns where stateorganism accepted reference tables were not available. the results of the present study showed a tendency towards underestimating the colombian population's nutritional state because it had been compared to populations such as the us population which has different growth trends; such situation may be presented in other populations.