Anthropometric changes in urban Sardinian children 7 to 10 years between 1975-1976 and 1996

Abstract

This study is a comparison of several anthropometric variables in school children of the same age (7-10 years) and sex measured in two primary schools in Cagliari (Sardinia, Italy) at an interval of 20 years (1996 vs. 1975-1976). For both males and females of each age-class, there are significant differences in the following dimensions: weight, stature, estimated lower limb length, biacromial breadth, xiphoid chest circumference, xiphoid chest depth, and bicristal breadth, and also in relative sitting height, cephalic index, and facial index. The means of the relative sitting height, cephalic, and facial indexes are higher in the children measured in 1975-1976 than in those measured in 1996. There are no significant differences in sitting height and arm length. In addition, the estimated BMIs of the 1975-1976 sample are, on average, lower than those of the 1996 sample. The results suggest that urban Sardinian children sampled in 1996 are generally taller, heavier, and larger and have a longer head and wider face than their peers of 20 years earlier. The increase in stature is due more to an increase in lower limb length than in sitting height. Am J. Hum. Biol. 12:782-791, 2000. Copyright 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Developmental origins of variability in pelvic dimensions: Evidence from nulliparous South Asian women in the United Kingdom

“…In India, evidence suggests that a negative secular trend in height over 10 000 years led to current low average height, possibly driven by transgenerational nutritional stresses, among other factors (Wells, Pomeroy, Walimbe, Popkin, & Yajnik, ). Importantly, secular height trends are principally influenced by postnatal growth (Cole, ; Sanna & Soro, ), and our results are consistent with the suggestion that nutritional interventions to reduce stunting, already promoted for many other reasons (Dewey & Begum, ), might benefit both adult height and pelvis size. Prior work has examined secular trends in pelvic size and morphology, although results have been somewhat mixed.…”

A Test of the DSP Sexing Method on CT Images from a Modern French Sample

“…Numerous combinations enable sex determination of both well‐preserved hip bones and damaged ones. However, the shape and size of the hip bone can change between generations and populations , along with other body dimensions ; therefore, it is necessary to validate the method with a present‐day population. Decker et al.…”

Secular Trends in Measures of Cephalo-Facial Traits among Bengalee Boys Aged 7.0–16.0 Years from Kolkata between 1982–1983 and 1999–2001

“…However, among Hungarian children decrease in cephalic index in 7 decades showed a tendency towards narrower head shape [22]. Similarly, studies conducted in Germany [7], Belgium [23] and Italy [5] show a trend towards debrachycephalization. It is interesting to note that, with respect to facial index, the trend in our study agrees well with the findings on Italian children [5], and therefore the decrease in facial index over time in both Italian and Bengalee boys indicates that the younger generation of children have wider faces compared to their peers about 20 years ago.…”

“…[1][2][3][4], cephalo-facial traits have remained relatively underreported. So far, the small number of available studies on secular changes in the measures of head and face have been mostly carried out in non-Indian populations, e.g., Italians [5,6], Germans [7,8], Australians [9], Belgians [10], Hungarians [11], Croatians [12] and Japanese [13]. These studies are based on samples of varying age groups: preschool stage, school age, adolescence and adulthood.…”