Income, Birth Order, Siblings, and Anthropometry

Abstract

The purpose of the present cross-sectional study was to examine the relationship and effect of monthly household income, birth order, and number of siblings on adult body dimensions, adiposity index, and body composition among adult Bengali females. One hundred seventy-one adult Bengali females, age 20.35 +/- 1.51 years (mean +/- SD; range: 18-21 years) from Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) were studied. Anthropometric measures (weight, height, waist circumference, hip circumference, and triceps, biceps, subscapular, suprailiac, and medial calf skinfold thicknesses) were taken from all participants using standard protocols. BMI and log10 of the sum of the five skinfold thicknesses were computed subsequently. Percentage of body fat was estimated from the triceps skinfold thickness following the equation of Durnin and Womersley (1974), and fat mass was then calculated. Results of the correlation analysis revealed that monthly household income had significant (p < 0.05) positive association with all anthropometric variables. Birth order and number of siblings showed significant (p < 0.05) inverse association. The correlation of monthly household income with anthropometric variables was much stronger for number of siblings and birth order. The results of the analysis of variance showed that monthly household income, birth order, and number of siblings (tertiles used to categorize all variables) had significant effects (p < 0.05) on anthropometric variables, indicating differences in adult body dimensions, the adiposity index, and body composition in relation to income, birth order, and number of siblings.

A Study on Nutritional Status and Dental Caries in Permanent Teeth among School Going Girl of Bengalee Population, India

“…In the present study prevalence of dental caries in permanent dentition demonstrate lower incidences (44.1%) than the finding of Mahejabeen et al, (2006) from southern part of India in preschool children and in corroboration with the study from Eastern India (Mondal et al, 2001) and as well as mean DMFT among the school children of Kerala, India (David et al, 2005). The overall nutritional status in terms of BMI-for age in the present study among the Bengalee School going girls, however, corroborate with earlier studies (Ghosh & Bandyopadhyay, 2006;Ghosh & Bandyopadhyay, 2009) on Bengalee schoolgirls and adults. Examination on prevalence of dental caries in the present study revealed that the underweight group was significantly higher (p < 0.05) than normal and overweight categories.…”

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

“…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. It may be that issues such as birth spacing and cultural influences on care patterns in families account for these differences, but we did not have the relevant data to explore this issue further.…”

First-borns have greater BMI and are more likely to be overweight or obese: a study of sibling pairs among 26 812 Swedish women

“…There seem to be very little data on the association between birth order and height in women, and none from large studies. Previously, the study on Italian women observed no difference in stature between first-borns and later-borns,10 while among Indian women, there was a weak correlation between birth order and stature (r=−0.20), but the magnitude of the effect was not quantified 11. In contrast, data from large studies have consistently reported differences in men.…”

“…In Italy, among 383 overweight or obese women, first-borns had more body fat and had BMI that was 4 kg/m 2 greater than later-borns 10. Similarly, a study on 171 young adult women in India showed that birth order was negatively correlated with BMI and fat mass 11. Among 1458 teenage girls in Poland, there was no difference in BMI SDS between first-borns and second-borns, but first-born girls were 1.5 times more likely to be obese than later-borns 12…”