Childhood socioeconomic circumstances and adult height and leg length in central and eastern Europe

Webb, Elizabeth; Kuh, Diana; Peasey, Anne; Pająk, Andrzej; Malyutina, Sofia; Kubínová, Růžena; Topór-Mądry, Roman; Денисова, Д. В.; Čapková, Naděžda; Marmot, Michael; Bobák, Martin

doi:10.1136/jech.2006.056457

Cited by 45 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…Our other findings in relation to childhood circumstances reflect what has been observed in a variety of countries (both developed and developing), including the positive relation between height and birth size,27–29 parental levels of education,25 and number of assets in the family home30; and the inverse relation between height and family size 28 31 32. The suggestion that later born children are on average taller than those first born has also been reported elsewhere,33 34 although others have found the inverse to be true 28 35.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Secular changes and predictors of adult height for 86 105 male and female members of the Thai Cohort Study born between 1940 and 1990

Jordan

Lim²,

Seubsman³

et al. 2010

J Epidemiol Community Health

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BackgroundHeight trends can be useful indicators of population health but, despite Thailand's rapid socioeconomic development since the 1950s, few studies have examined accompanying secular changes in adult height or the effects of the transition on the heights of rural versus urban populations. This study therefore sought to document average heights in different age groups of rural and urban Thais and to investigate factors associated with attained height.MethodsData from 86 105 Thai Cohort Study participants was used to estimate mean heights for men and women in different birth year groups. Simple regression was used to calculate the change in height per decade of birth year among those based in rural or urban locations as children. Multiple linear regression was used to investigate effects of other childhood factors on height.ResultsOverall, average heights were found to have increased by approximately 1 cm per decade in those born between 1940 and 1990. However, the rate of increase was 0.4–0.5 cm per decade greater among urban-based Thais compared with those from the countryside. Parental education levels, household assets, birth size, sibling number, birth rank and region of residence were also significantly associated with adult height.ConclusionsThese data suggest a marked secular increase in Thai heights in the second half of the 20th century probably reflecting improved childhood health and nutrition over this time. Rural-born Thais, who benefited to a lesser extent from the changes, may face future health challenges with greater risks of, among other things, obesity and its health consequences.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Secular changes and predictors of adult height for 86 105 male and female members of the Thai Cohort Study born between 1940 and 1990

Jordan

Lim²,

Seubsman³

et al. 2010

J Epidemiol Community Health

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“…For example, while we have previously reported that persons who lived through World War II had shorter stature than would be expected on the basis of long-term secular trends [17] , the steeper birth year gradient in Russians in this study was not explained by leg length, which can serve as a biomarker of early adversity [18] . It may be that cumulative adversity over the life course, beginning with poor material conditions in the 1930s, through World War II and its aftermath, eventually leading to job insecurities and social changes in the immediate post-Soviet era, have had a long-term 'weathering' effect on health, particularly in older Russians.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

Association between Year of Birth and Cognitive Functions in Russia and the Czech Republic: Cross-Sectional Results of the HAPIEE Study

et al. 2009

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Objectives: To assess differences in cognitive functions by year of birth in Russia and the Czech Republic. Methods: A cross-sectional study in the general population of Novosibirsk (Russia) and 6 cities of the Czech Republic recruited random samples of men and women (3,874 Russians, 3,626 Czechs) aged 45–69 years in 2002 (i.e. born in 1933–1957). Word recall, verbal fluency (number of animals named in 1 min) and letter search were assessed in a clinic. Results: Except letter search in men, we found similar levels of cognitive functioning in Russians and Czechs in the youngest subjects and a steeper association of functioning with year of birth in Russia than in the Czech Republic. For example, the difference in the mean word recall, associated with 10 years difference in year of birth, was 0.9 (SE 0.06) words in Russian men, compared to 0.4 (0.06) words in Czech men; in women, these figures were 0.8 (0.05) and 0.3 (0.05), respectively. For all outcomes, except letter search in men, the interactions between year of birth and country were statistically highly significant, and the differences in the year of birth effects between countries were largely unexplained by socioeconomic indicators and risk factors. Conclusion: The slope of association between lower cognitive functioning and earlier year of birth is much steeper in Russia than in the Czech Republic. Given that poor cognitive functioning is a risk factor for dementia, long-term follow-up of this cohort and other studies into population rates of cognitive impairment in Russia should be a priority.

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“…Beyond pubertal timing, is has been suggested that relative leg length is sensitive to poor childhood environmental conditions, such as nutritional deprivation (Wadsworth et al, 2002) or stressful circumstances (Webb et al, 2008) that affect growth rate between 0 and 4 years of age—a nutritionally sensitive period, during which growth occurs predominantly in the legs and head (Bogin and Varela-Silva, 2010). The relative importance of early-life growth rate versus prepubertal growth duration in determining relative leg length may be determined by the societal context—where nutritional resources are scarce, low relative leg length may be more attributed to early-life nutritional inadequacy ( via suppressed early-life growth rate) than shortened prepubertal growth duration caused by early puberty (McIntyre, 2011).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relative leg length is associated with type 2 diabetes differently according to pubertal timing: The Brazilian longitudinal study of adult health

Mueller

Duncan

Barreto

et al. 2014

American J Hum Biol

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Objectives Studies from developed societies have shown that individuals with short legs relative to height have higher risk of type 2 diabetes. This has been much less explored in less developed populations where influences on relative leg length and diabetes may differ. The Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (in Portuguese, ELSA-Brasil) allows us to test, in a cohort born (1934–1975) and raised when undernutrition was common, whether short legs relative to height is positively associated with diabetes, independent of early-life factors, including birth weight, age at menarche, and young-adult BMI. Methods We used baseline, cross-sectional data from 15,105 participants aged 35–74 years participating in ELSA-Brasil. We created age-and-sex-specific Z scores for leg length index (leg length/height x 100) according to an external reference. Diabetes was defined by self-reported physician diagnosis, medication use, fasting and 2-hour post-75g-load glucose, and A1C. Results A one-unit decrement in leg-length-index Z score was associated with 12% (8–17%) higher prevalence of diabetes in Brazilian adults, after adjustment through Poisson regression for confounders, including race, maternal education, and birth weight. This association persisted after further adjustment for menarche age, BMI (at age 20), buttocks circumference, and waist circumference. It was stronger among women with early menarche (p interaction=0.02). Leg length index was also positively associated with fasting glucose, fasting insulin, 2-hour glucose, and A1C (p<0.05). Conclusions In contemporary Brazilian adults, short legs relative to height is positively associated with diabetes independent of measures of intrauterine growth, pubertal timing, young-adult adiposity. This association is stronger in women with early menarche.

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Childhood socioeconomic circumstances and adult height and leg length in central and eastern Europe

Abstract: In these urban populations in eastern Europe, adult height is associated with childhood conditions at least as strongly as leg length.

Cited by 45 publications

References 63 publications

Secular changes and predictors of adult height for 86 105 male and female members of the Thai Cohort Study born between 1940 and 1990

Secular changes and predictors of adult height for 86 105 male and female members of the Thai Cohort Study born between 1940 and 1990

Association between Year of Birth and Cognitive Functions in Russia and the Czech Republic: Cross-Sectional Results of the HAPIEE Study

Relative leg length is associated with type 2 diabetes differently according to pubertal timing: The Brazilian longitudinal study of adult health

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