Height, weight and menarche in Swedish urban school children in relation to socio-economic and regional factors

Abstract

During the period 1964-1973, a defined sample of 740 Swedish urban school children (360 girls and 380 boys) from 40 different urban areas all over the country were followed longitudinally. Height and weight were measured twice a year and age at menarche was recorded. Mean ages at peak height velocity (PHV) and peak weight velocity (PWV) were 11-91 years (SD 0-95) and 12-50 years (SD 1-08) for girls with average values of 8-30 cm/year (SD 1-32) and 7-37 kg/year (SD 1-94). Mean age at menarche was 13-05 years (SD 1-03). PHV and PWV in boys occurred on average at 14-09 years (SD 1-11) and 14-30 years (SD 1-11) with magnitudes of 9-84 cm/year (SD 1-40) and 9-07 kg/year (SD 2-04). No significant differences between socio-economic strata defined by father's occupation and family income were found either for height and weight or for ages at PHV, PWV and menarche. Girls but not boys in the lowest social group (III) had more weight for height during puberty than had girls in social groups I and II. Between the three main geographical regions of Sweden some differences were found. Boys in the South were at the ages of 17 and 18 on average heavier than boys from the rest of the country. Boys and girls in the South had PHV, PWV and menarche half a year later than children in Middle Sweden. In analysis of variance for age at PHV significant interaction terms were found for regions times urbanization. In the South and North age at PHV was earlier the higher the urbanization level, but in Middle Sweden the reverse occurred.

Zmienność międzypokoleniowa zdolności siłowych dzieci z trzech aglomeracji Małopolski w kontekście ich rozwoju somatycznego i psychicznego

“…It can be concluded that in this case a phenomenon, also noticed in other studies, of the long-term changes is happening faster in populations that had worse development conditions in the past [17,19,31,32,34,35,36,37,38,39,41].…”

“…Based on the results of this study's research and avoiding the hard-to-explain reasons of the observed phenomenon, it needs to be concluded that similar tendencies for the stabilization of body height level or even its retardation were noticed in works mentioned in the Introduction [2,9,11,15,16,17,18,19]. It has to be noticed, though, that in this study's research such phenomenon occurred only in the group of children living in the big city.…”

“…A similar phenomenon, as well as the earlier maturity of children from richer families and whose parents had higher education, took place in less industrialized countries [17,19,31,32,34,35,36,37,38,39,41]. This is considered a borderline of human biological adaptation.…”

“…This could mean that the causes of intergenerational changes are environmental, not genetic. Yet the topic of whether the observed phenomenon of biological development deceleration of girls in several countries [2,9,11,15,16,17,18,19] is a result of a geneticallydetermined barrier of reaching subsequent stages of development in a given population, or a result of the deterioration of children's development conditions, is still under discussion.…”

The Rise of Childhood Type 1 Diabetes in the 20th Century

“…For example, rapid growth in early childhood increases the risk of diabetes (56), possibly by increasing the work-load on ␤-cells, and children grow considerably faster than they did a century ago. In 1970, Swedish boys were (depending on social class) 14.5-16.8 cm taller by age 15 years than in 1883 (57). Early growth velocity and obesity may however be more important than final attained height in predisposing to diabetes (56).…”