The health of a population is most accurately reflected in the rate of growth of its children. It is this theme which underlies the analysis and presentation of what is by far the largest compilation of growth data ever assembled. The first edition, published in 1976, included all known reliable recent results on height, weight, skinfolds and other body measurements from all parts of the globe. In this edition, the very numerous measurements taken between 1976 and 1988 have been included as well as the results of the large number of new studies made on rate of maturation as evinced by bone age and pubertal development stages. Many sections of the book dwell on disentangling the effects of the environment and heredity on growth, and thus answer the question of whether one universal standard suffices for all peoples of the world, or whether different populations (such as races or nations) should each have their own optimal growth standards. Written by practical people with experience of the problems in developing countries, this book explains in simple terms the different sorts of growth surveys, how to set about making them, and which sort to choose. All who are professionally concerned with child health should read it.

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An analysis has been made of sex dimorphism in adult height using data from 58 Negroid, 76 European, and 67 Amerindian populations. Regression analyses were carried out on the sex difference and sex average of male and female stature means. The greatest sex dimorphism was found in Amerindians and the least in Negroid populations. Data from 36 Asiatic and 27 New Guinea populations have also been considered. It seems that sex dimorphism in adult height has a strong genetic component, making it inappropriate as a measure by which to judge the health and nutritional status of a population.

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SUMMARY This paper presents data on the extent to which blood pressure (BP) and growth status at 7 years of age are associated with BP, growth, and maturity status during adolescence. Two samples of black adolescents, namely, a representative sample (n = 562) stratified by sex and age (11 to 15 years) and a sample (n = 256) with supine BP over one standard deviation abore the mean at 7 years of age (High BP7), were selected from the Philadelphia Collaborative Perinatal Project (CPP) population and followed longitudinally for 3 years. When the subjects reached adolescence we again measured supine blood pressure, height, weight, and skeletal maturity. Analyses of the data collected at 7 years of age by the CPP Indicated that weight and height are highly significantly associated with systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastollc blood pressure (DBP) respectively. Accordingly, the SBP, DBP, weights, and heights of the representative sample at age 7 were divided into percentile groupings (< 15%, 15%-85%, > 85%). Using mixed longitudinal analyses during adolescence, we found that mean SBP tracked in males through age 15 and in females through age 13 based on the percentile groupings of SBP, height, and weight. Moreover, the weight percentile groupings provided the best discrimination of SBP at these ages. Skeletal age also tracked throughout early adolescence using these percentile groupings of 7-year heights and weights. In females only, diastollc phase 4 (DBP 4 ) daring adolescence was significantly associated with 7-year height percentile groupings. In comparing the representative and the High BP7 samples at each chronological age for BP, height, weight, and skeletal age at adolescence (ages 12 to 17 years), it was found that the High BP7 sample was, on the average, taller and heavier at age 7 and throughout early adolescence. At age 17 in males, however, there were no significant differences in BP, growth, or maturity status. In females, SBP of the High BP7 sample remained significantly higher, and there was a tendency for them to remain heavier through age 17. Hence BP variation is so closely associated with growth and maturation that these factors must be taken into account when assessing BP in childhood and adolescence.

Growth is marked by changes in body shape as well as increase in body size. It is suggested that changes in body shape in childhood and adolescence be analyzed by least squares fit lines for one dimension on a second at successive ages. These are preferred during childhood to the traditional indices of anthropologists because body proportions change with growth, and one can identify the direction of the change and observe which body dimension is changing, or if both are. Furthermore, populations may be compared by analysis of covariance for different patterns of growth related to sex and ethnic groups. Analysis of a number of populations have demonstrated clear differences between the sexes and between populations for the following body proportions: sitting height to leg length, arm length to leg length, biacromial width to biiliac width.

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