Growth Reacceleration of School Children in the City of Sendai, Japan.

Abstract

Height and weight of 6th year-grade children in primary schools and the 3rd year-grade children in junior high schools have been recorded in Sendai in every October since pre-World War II days, and the secular trends of the annual gains in the measures were compared among the latest three decades of 1965-74, 1975-84 and 1985-94. Acceleration and then reduction in acceleration in growth were observed in the first and the second decade, respectively, and such were followed by reacceleration in the latest 10 year-period. The three-phased changes were most evident in height and weight of primary school children of both sexes, whereas less clear or unclear among children in junior high schools.

Trends in Growth Status among Schoolchildren in Sendai, Japan, 1994-2003: Leveling-Off of Mean Body Height and Weight

“…However, a new trend of the increase in body size gain was observed from the late 1980s to the early 1990s (Nakatsuka et al 1998). The patterns of the trend in growth status among Sendai schoolchildren seem to have changed in a cycle of about 10 years.…”

“…Boys and girls in the 6th grade of primary school (6thPS) and in the 3rd year of junior high school (3rdJHS) in the city of Sendai have been examined for height and body weight since 1934 (Kondo et al 1978;Ikeda et al 1983;Nakatsuka et al 1988Nakatsuka et al , 1998. The Sendai City Education Commission supplied the measurements to our department for statistical evaluation.…”

“…Accordingly, the measures of the children in the premerger area were selected for better comparison (Nakatsuka et al 1998). …”

“…7.0.2, SAS Institute) software Solid and dotted lines are for boys and girls, respectively. Note that the figure contains the data (from 1934 to 1994) published in the original reports (Kondo et al 1978;Nakatsuka et al 1998), with permission from Tohoku University Medical Press.…”

“…We have also been monitoring the secular changes in growth of the 6th year children in primary schools (6thPS, 11-12 years old) and 3rd year children in junior high schools (3rdJHS, 14-15 years old) in the city of Sendai since 1934 (pre-World War II days) ( Fig. 1) (Kondo et al 1978;Ikeda et al 1983;Nakatsuka et al 1988Nakatsuka et al , 1998. It was previously made clear that the schoolchildren in Sendai were always taller and heavier than those of the preceding year, and that the increments were as large as 0.5 cm and 0.4 kg per year from the late 1940s to the early 1970s (Kondo et al 1978).…”