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I would like to know if I should use following or according to when referring to some guidelines, such as in the following example:
Stunting was diagnosed when a patient’s height was smaller than 1.40m, for men, or 1.30m, for women. These cut-off points were defined following / according to World Health Organization guidelines on anthropometry.
Either is correct in this context, it's a stylistic choice. Personally I would add "the" if you went with "following", thus "defined following the World Health Organization guidelines...", but I would leave it off if you went with "according to", thus "defined according to World Health Organization guidelines..."
In this case either is fine. Bear in mind though you forgot your article the.
Stunting was diagnosed when a patient’s height was smaller than 1.40m, for men, or 1.30m, for women. These cut-off points were defined following / according to the World Health Organization guidelines on anthropometry.
