Month‐of‐birth effect on height and weight in Polish rural children

Abstract

This study investigated a hypothesis of dependence of child height and weight on the month of their birth. The sample comprised 1,241 subjects, 568 boys and 673 girls, age 6-20 years, from villages in Olsztyn Province, Northeast Poland. Individuals' height and weight data were standardized by sex and age to allow grouping of individuals born in the same month irrespective of their sex and age at examination. Subjects born in October to March proved to be significantly taller and heavier than those born in April to September. The magnitude of differences between the semiannual groupings equaled 13.1% of a standard deviation (SD) in height (P = 0.03) and 14.2% of SD in weight (P = 0.02). The month-of-birth effect was much stronger for children characterized by high socioeconomic status, where these differences amounted to 39.1% of SD in height (P = 0.02) and 49.4% of SD in weight (P = 0.01). There were no regular changes of the effect with age and no differences between the sexes were found. Fitted cosine functions identified the highest values of examined traits for individuals born in December with the lowest values being found in those born in June. Possible explanations of the month-of-birth effect are considered in terms of age categorizing, seasonal variety of growth rates, as well as birth-related or conception-related global, hemispheric, and local factors. This study rejects the first two possibilities and suggests this effect requires further research to be conducted in various geographical locations, climates, and cultures, on humans as well as on other species.

Seasonal variation of nutrient intake in pregnancy: effects on infant measures and possible influence on diseases related to season of birth

“…The same trend was observed in our study (see Table 3) but was not significant (P ¼ 0.711). Other studies have reported an effect of season of birth on height and weight in later years (Wohlfahrt et al, 1998, Banegast et al, 2001, Koscinski et al, 2004 but the results are not consistent. Explanations advanced for these effects include seasonal differences in light exposure (Banegast et al, 2001), vitamin D synthesis (McGrath et al, 2005) and ambient outdoor temperature (Lawlor et al, 2005).…”

Prenatal factors associated with the neonatal line thickness in human deciduous incisors

“…This influence concerns many biological features, among others: fecundity, conceptions and births (Leslie and Fry, 1989;Lam et al, 1994;Malina and Himes, 1977;Panter-Brick, 1996), sex ratio at birth (Nonaka et al, 1999), children's birth parameters (McGrath et al, 2005), infant mortality (Doblhammer and Vaupel, 2001), adult mortality (Moore et al, 1997), height and weight in later life (Banegas et al, 2001;Henneberg and Louw, 1993;Kościński et al, 2004;Krenz-Niedbała et al, 2011;Shephard et al, 1979;Weber et al, 1998), cardiovascular conditions in adulthood (Doblhammer and Vaupel, 2001;Painter et al, 2005), life expectancy and the probability of death at older ages (Doblhammer and Vaupel, 2001;Gagnon, 2012;Muñoz-Tudurí and García-Moro, 2008), and even the incidence of certain neurodegenerative diseases, such as multiple sclerosis (Doblhammer et al, 2005; G Model JCHB-25372; No. of Pages 13 Salzer et al, 2010;Wiberg and Templer, 1994;Willer et al, 2005) or Parkinson's disease (Gardener et al, 2010;Mattock et al, 1988).…”

Birth month associations with height, head circumference, and limb lengths among peruvian children

“…Some variation exists in the seasonal pattern of growth in developed countries (Banegas et al, ; Chodick et al, ). For example, an October–April peak and May–September nadir was reported for child height in north Poland (Kościński et al, ; Krenz‐Niedbała et al, ), while in Dunedin, New Zealand, birth weight and length peaked in October (spring) births and were lowest in January (summer) births (Waldie et al, ). Furthermore, dual peaks and nadirs have been identified in Japan (Matsuda et al, ) and southern Chile (Torche and Corvalan, ), although this may reflect in part concomitant seasonal variation in gestation length (Matsuda et al, ).…”

“…Associations have been widely reported between season of birth and a range of characteristics, including birth weight and length (Wohlfahrt et al, ; McGrath et al, , ; Torche and Corvalan, ; Krenz‐Niedbała et al, ) and body size in childhood (Kościński et al, ; Puch et al, ) and adulthood (Weber et al, ; Waldie et al, ). Season of birth associations with phenotype and health in developing countries are thought to reflect seasonal variation in diet, activity, and disease (Roberts et al, ; Adair and Pollitt, ; Moore et al, ; Rayco‐Solon et al, ; Chodick et al, ).…”