The effects of socioeconomic status on endochondral and appositional bone growth, and acquisition of cortical bone in children from 19th century Birmingham, England

Abstract

Endochondral growth, appositional growth, and acquisition of cortical bone thickness in the femur are investigated in subadult skeletons (N = 43, dental age range birth to 12 years) from the 19(th)-century AD burial site of St. Martin's churchyard, Birmingham, England. Endochondral growth is monitored using diaphyseal femoral length. Appositional growth is monitored using radiographic midshaft mediolateral width and acquisition of cortical bone using combined mediolateral cortical thickness measured at the midshaft from radiographs. The methodology involves plotting these variables against dental age. Growth is compared in children of differing socioeconomic status. Higher and lower status individuals are identified in the assemblage by their burial in brick vaults in the case of the former and in earth-cut graves in the case of the latter. The relationships between bone dimensions and dental age are described using a polynomial regression procedure, and analysis of regression residuals is used to evaluate differences in bone dimension-for-dental age between the two status groups. Results show that lower socioeconomic status individuals had lower cortical thickness-for-dental age than those of higher status. This was interpreted as likely reflecting poorer nutrition in the children of lower socioeconomic backgrounds. There was no patterning with respect to socioeconomic status in femur diaphyseal length or midshaft width. The results support the idea that, for skeletal populations, growth in cortical thickness may be a more sensitive indicator of adverse conditions in childhood than growth in bone length or width.

The effect of age, sex, and physical activity on entheseal morphology in a contemporary Italian skeletal collection

“…1 and 2), we must first consider the possible influence of the small size for the oldest age classes. In addition, we must consider the observed pattern in light of age-related changes of cortical bone (LeBoff and Glowacki, 1999;Mays, 2000;Weiss, 2003;Pearson and Lieberman, 2004). Robb (1998), in a study of an Italian Iron Age skeletal sample, detected an increase in entheseal scores only between 20 and 40-50 years.…”

Insights on the paleoepidemiology of ancient tuberculosis from the structural analysis of postcranial remains from the Ligurian Neolithic (northwestern Italy)

“…Therefore, the sum of the medial and lateral thickness of the cortical bone at the midshaft of the tibia was plotted against the diameter at the same level, and compared with the data from the adult sample. A similar method, but based on femoral medio-lateral radiographs, was adopted from previous research (Mays et al, 2009). …”

Urban and rural infant‐feeding practices and health in early medieval Central Europe (9th–10th Century, Czech Republic)

“…It is well known that lower height for age and slowed maturation in a given population are associated with malnutrition, disease, and physiological stress (Eveleth and Tanner, 1990;Larsen, 1997). Diaphyseal length, anteroposterior (AP) and medio-lateral (ML) diameter at the midshaft of femur, tibia and humerus were measured to monitor both endochondral and appositional growth (Mays et al, 2009). …”

“…In the case of data regarding the presence of non-specific stress indicators, the same type of analysis was used: simple and multiple logistic regressions taking into account the median age. To evaluate the influence of the type of residency on the growth in different skeletal dimensions, the method developed by Mays et al (2009) was applied: a polynomial regression for each of the dependent variables (bone length, AP or ML) on dental age was fitted. This procedure enabled investigation of the differences in bone dimensions between urban and rural individuals, controlling for the effect of dental age by carrying out the analysis of the regressions' standardized residuals.…”