Social Inequalities in Height: Persisting Differences Today Depend upon Height of the Parents

Abstract

BackgroundSubstantial increases in height have occurred concurrently with economic development in most populations during the last century. In high-income countries, environmental exposures that can limit genetic growth potential appear to have lessened, and variation in height by socioeconomic position may have diminished. The objective of this study is to investigate inequalities in height in a cohort of children born in the early 1990s in England, and to evaluate which factors might explain any identified inequalities.Methods and Findings12,830 children from The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), a population based cohort from birth to about 11.5 years of age, were used in this analysis. Gender- and age-specific z-scores of height at different ages were used as outcome variables. Multilevel models were used to take into account the repeated measures of height and to analyze gender- and age-specific relative changes in height from birth to 11.5 years. Maternal education was the main exposure variable used to examine socioeconomic inequalities. The roles of parental and family characteristics in explaining any observed differences between maternal education and child height were investigated.Children whose mothers had the highest education compared to those with none or a basic level of education, were 0.39 cm longer at birth (95% CI: 0.30 to 0.48). These differences persisted and at 11.5 years the height difference was 1.4 cm (95% CI: 1.07 to 1.74). Several other factors were related to offspring height, but few changed the relationship with maternal education. The one exception was mid-parental height, which fully accounted for the maternal educational differences in offspring height.ConclusionsIn a cohort of children born in the 1990s, mothers with higher education gave birth to taller boys and girls. Although height differences were small they persisted throughout childhood. Maternal and paternal height fully explained these differences.

Socioeconomic variation in height: analysis of National Child Measurement Programme data for England

“…This is similar to findings from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) study for white British children aged 10 years using the educational attainment of the mother as a measure of socioeconomic status 11 12. The difference in height between the lowest and highest deprivation quintiles among children aged 10–11 years in our sample is 1.6 cm for boys and 1.2 cm for girls.…”

“…The difference in height between children in the lowest and highest socioeconomic groups varies between 4 cm for 9-year-olds born in 1947 and 198710 and 1.4 cm (boys) and 1.7 cm (girls) for 10-year-olds born in 1991–1992 11. Furthermore, more recent research asserts that inequalities in height are diminishing 12–14.…”

Adult height, nutrition, and population health

“…113 The social gradient of adult height in young adults in a UK birth cohort appears to be entirely dependent on the height of the parents. 114 While discussing the relationship between income and height, it is important to note that the relationship between average adult height and income is nonlinear and that average population height can be dependent on socioeconomic distribution; transferring income to poor families would increase average height because, while children from poor families would grow, children from wealthy families would not lose any part of their cumulative net nutrition (as they already have more than enough).…”

“…Taller parents in more favored socioeconomic circumstances will transmit both their genes and their social advantages to their children 114 The association between maternal height and child health may be due to underlying genetic control of both, with short stature transmitted along with increased risk of mortality and disease from mother to child. Tallness is a desired trait and is rewarded by society with higher conferred status and wages.…”

The association of the ‘additional height index’ with atopic diseases, non-atopic asthma, ischaemic heart disease and mortality: a population-based study

“…This may be the exact reason for the more tight CIs of the analyses of AHI (figure 2) as compared with height (figure 3) in our study. We tested the association of mid-parental height and parents’ height separately with the outcomes, but we did not find associations, as have been reported in other studies 25 51…”