Growth during times of fear and emotional stress

Abstract

Twenty-one scientists met for this year’s virtual conference on Auxology held at the University Potsdam, Germany, to discuss child and adolescent growth during times of fear and emotional stress. Growth within the broad range of normal for age and sex is considered a sign of good general health whereas fear and emotional stress can lead to growth faltering. Stunting is a sign of social disadvantage and poor parental education. Adverse childhood experiences affect child development, particularly in families with low parental education and low socioeconomic status. Negative effects were also shown in Indian children exposed prenatally and in early postnatal life to the cyclone Aila in 2009. Distrust, fears and fake news regarding the current Corona pandemic received particular attention though the effects generally appeared weak. Mean birth weight was higher; rates of low, very and extremely low birth weight were lower. Other topics discussed by the participants, were the influences of economic crises on birth weight, the measurement of self-confidence and its impact on growth, the associations between obesity, peer relationship, and behavior among Turkish adolescents, height trends in Indonesia, physiological neonatal weight loss, methods for assessing biological maturation in sportsmen, and a new method for skeletal age determination. The participants also discussed the association between acute myocardial infarction and somatotype in Estonia, rural-urban growth differences in Mongolian children, socio-environmental conditions and sexual dimorphism, biological mortality bias, and new statistical techniques for describing inhomogeneity in the association of bivariate variables, and for detecting and visualizing extensive interactions among variables.

Impact of integrated preventive and curative health package on nutritional status of children under 2 years of age in the health area of Tama, Tahoua region (Niger)

“…All this affects children emotionally, undermining the production of hormones such as oxytocin and osteocalcin, which are involved in skeletal development and regulate height expression. In this regard, some authors (45,46) discuss extensively how stress, education, socioeconomic, political, and emotional conditions are responsible for stunting. We must remember that intake and disease are the immediate causes of malnutrition.…”

Growth and Public Health Concerns

“…Seventeen scientist met for this year's conference on Auxology (Hermanussen et al 2021b;Scheffler et al 2021b) held at Krobielowice castle, Poland, to discuss growth and public health concerns. The regulation of growth is complex.…”