Socioeconomic inequalities in height,leg length and trunk length among children aged 6.5 years and their parents from the Republic of Belarus: Evidence from the Promotion of Breastfeeding Intervention Trial (PROBIT)

Background: Lower socioeconomic position is associated with shorter stature, in particular shorter leg length, but the magnitude of these associations in non-Western countries has received little attention.

Aim: To examine socioeconomic differentials in height, leg and trunk length in 6.5 year olds from the Republic of Belarus and compare these to differentials in parental height.

Methods: Multivariable linear regression was used to examine associations in a cohort of 13 889 children.

Results: Children from non-manual households were 1.0 cm (95% confidence interval: 0.7–1.3 cm) taller than those from manual households. Mothers and fathers from non-manual backgrounds were 0.7 cm (0.5–0.8) and 1.8 cm (1.6–2.0) taller than those from manual backgrounds, respectively. Associations with higher parental educational attainment were similar. The magnitudes of the associations of socioeconomic position with leg length were similar to those with trunk length. Adjusting for mid-parental height and number of older siblings attenuated associations markedly.

Conclusions: In Belarus, similar socioeconomic differentials in height were observed in both children and their parents. Among children, height differentials were partly explained by mid-parental height and number of older siblings. Leg length was not a more sensitive indicator of childhood socioeconomic conditions than trunk length.     

Adult stature,body proportions and age at menarche in the United States National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHANES) III

Background: Previous studies have found that age at menarche is associated with stature, primarily via leg length. However, the effects appear to vary by population and/or time period. Improving socioeconomic conditions might amplify the association.

Aim: To test whether the association between early menarche and reduced stature in industrialized countries is mediated by leg length. To further test whether these effects are modified by years of education, as a proxy for socioeconomic conditions.

Subjects and methods: The study used data on from 3174 21–40 year-old women who participated in the third National Health and Nutrition Survey of the US (NHANES III). The anthropometric measurements employed were stature, sitting height and upper leg length. Leg length, lower leg length and ratio of sitting height to leg length were calculated.

Results: Earlier menarche was associated with shorter stature, by ～ 3.9 mm per year of advancement, all of which was attributable to shorter leg length. Almost two-thirds of the effect was in the lower (distal) leg. Years of education did not significantly modify effects of pubertal timing on stature or body proportions.

Conclusion: Socioeconomic conditions might not explain variable associations between linear body proportions and pubertal timing.     

Associations between household income,height and BMI in contemporary US children: infancy through early childhood

Background: Previous studies report positive associations between household income and height in childhood and negative associations between income and body mass index (BMI). No study has evaluated concurrent associations in early-life.

Aim: To evaluate the association between household income and anthropometric development in early-life.

Subjects and methods: The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) is a representative sample of US children born in 2001 and followed from ～9 months through 5 years. A generalized linear mixed modelling framework estimates income associations to the levels and velocities of height and BMI.

Results: A doubling of permanent income is associated with an ～0.26?cm height advantage over the ages of the sample and an approximate 0.11?cm/year faster velocity at 9 months. All race–sex sub-groups show some positive association between income and height. Income shows little association to BMI at 9 months but by 5 years a doubling of income is associated with a 0.25?kg/m² lower BMI. This is suggested to derive from a lower BMI velocity associated with higher income. The BMI relationships are generally reflective of white and Hispanic children.

Conclusion: The findings suggest that associations between income and anthropometric development in US children have origins in early-life.     

Spatial parameters of walking gait and footedness

Objective: The present study was undertaken to assess whether footedness has effects on selected spatial and angular parameters of able-bodied gait by evaluating footprints of young adults.

Subjects and methods: A total of 112 males and 93 females were selected from among students and staff members of the University of Malawi using a simple random sampling method. Footedness of subjects was assessed by the Waterloo Footedness Questionnaire Revised. Gait at natural speed was recorded using the footprint method. The following spatial parameters of gait were derived from the inked footprint sequences of subjects: step and stride lengths, gait angle and base of gait. The anthropometric measurements taken were weight, height, leg and foot length, foot breadth, shoulder width, and hip and waist circumferences.

Results: The prevalence of right-, left- and mix-footedness in the whole sample of young Malawian adults was 81%, 8.3% and 10.7%, respectively. One-way analysis of variance did not reveal a statistically significant difference between footedness categories in the mean values of anthropometric measurements (p?>?0.05 for all variables). Gender differences in step and stride length values were not statistically significant. Correction of these variables for stature did not change the trend. Males had significantly broader steps than females. Normalized values of base of gait had similar gender difference. The group means of step length and normalized step length of the right and left feet were similar, for males and females. There was a significant side difference in the gait angle in both gender groups of volunteers with higher mean values on the left side compared to the right one (t?=?2.64, p?<?0.05 for males, and t?=?2.78, p?<?0.05 for females). One-way analysis of variance did not demonstrate significant difference between footedness categories in the mean values of step length, gait angle, bilateral differences in step length and gait angle, stride length, gait base and normalized gait variables of male and female volunteers (p?>?0.05 for all variables).

Conclusions: The present study demonstrated that footedness does not affect spatial and angular parameters of walking gait.     

Association of maternal menarcheal age with anthropometric dimensions and blood pressure in children from Greater Bilbao

Abstract

Background: Earlier menarche has been related to shorter height and greater obesity-related anthropometric dimensions and blood pressure in women. Boys and girls with earlier maternal menarcheal age (MMA) have shown greater height and body mass index (BMI) in childhood.

Aim: To analyse associations of menarcheal age with their own and their children’s anthropometric dimensions and blood pressure.

Subjects and methods: The sample consisted of 493 women and their children (aged 2–19 years) from Greater Bilbao (Basque Country, Spain). For both generations there is information on 19 anthropometric dimensions, blood pressure and socio-demographic characteristics. Linear regressions adjusted for different covariates were used to analyse the associations.

Results: Menarcheal age in women showed the greatest positive associations with iliospinal height and ectomorphy and negative associations with BMI, sum of six skin-folds, endomorphy and mesomorphy. Boys with earlier MMA had greater body heights and breadths, particularly iliospinal height and biacromial breadth (0.10?z-score/year; p?<?0.05). In girls, earlier MMA predicted greater sitting height, biepicondylar humerus breadth, weight and sum of four circumferences (0.07–0.09?z-score/year; p?<?0.05). However, there was some evidence that MMA was positively associated with body heights, ectomorphy and blood pressure in girls aged ≥12.

Conclusion: Children with earlier MMA tend to have greater anthropometric dimensions. Adolescent growth spurt might affect these relationships, at least in girls.     

大连学生肢体长和躯干宽的生长发育

目的：了解大连学生肢体长和躯干宽的生长发育规律。方法：调查了大连市7～17岁的1210(男598,女612)名学生的上肢长、下肢长、肩宽和骨盆宽,并与1987年的资料进行了比较。结果：大连学生的上肢长、下肢长、肩宽和骨盆宽总体随年龄而增长。男女学生四个项目的发育高峰年龄分别依次为12．50岁和10．40岁、10．74岁和9．63岁、12．76岁和12．63岁、12．58岁和11．12岁。四项数值与身高均呈正相关。结论：肢体长和躯干宽有明显的性差,其生长发育随年龄而增长。     

Early life influences on adult leg and trunk length in the 1958 British birth cohort.

OBJECTIVES: Short leg length has been associated with increased disease risk. We investigated (1) whether taller childhood stature predicts longer adult leg than trunk length; (2) the effects of early life factors on adult leg/trunk length. METHODS: We used data from the 1958 British birth cohort on height in childhood and at 45 years, leg and trunk length at 45 years and early life factors (n approximately 5,900). RESULTS: For a SD increase in height at 7 years, adult leg length increased more than trunk length (2.5-2.8 cm vs. 1.9 cm). Parental height had a stronger association with adult than childhood height, and leg than trunk length. Prenatal factors were associated with leg (maternal smoking) and trunk length (birth order); birth weight had a similar effect on leg and trunk lengths. Large family size, overcrowding, and social housing were more strongly associated with leg than trunk length: deficits in adult height (0.4-0.8 cm) were mostly due to shorter legs. CONCLUSIONS: Socio-economic adversity in childhood is associated with delayed early growth, shorter adult leg length, and stature. Leg length is the height component most sensitive to early environment. Studies of early life and adult disease could usefully assess adult leg length in addition to height.     

Sexual dimorphism in foot length proportionate to stature

Background: The preponderance of existing results suggests that, relative to stature, women have smaller feet than men. However, several investigations indicate that the relationship between foot length and stature may be curvilinear, a pattern that, due to the dimorphic nature of stature, would mask the true direction of pedal sexual dimorphism in published results. Aim: The study aimed to determine whether proportionate foot length is sexually dimorphic and, if so, the nature of that dimorphism. Materials and methods: Surveying genetically disparate populations (USA, Turkey, and Native North and Central American), we examined data from three previous anthropometric studies (Davis 1990, Parham et al. 1992, Özaslan et al. 2003) and foot tracings from the Steggerda Collection at the US National Museum of Health and Medicine. Analyses explored sex differences in the ratio between foot length and stature, and tested for nonlinearity. Results: Although varying in degree across populations, proportionate to stature, female foot length is consistently smaller than male foot length. Conclusion: Given the biomechanical challenges posed by pregnancy, smaller female proportionate foot length is somewhat surprising, as foot length affects dorsoventral stability. It is possible that the observed pattern reflects intersexual selection for small female foot size, a cue of youth and nulliparity.     

Fetal growth from 12 to 26 weeks of gestation

175 freshly aborted fetuses (including three pairs of twins), 12–26 weeks postmenstrual age and products of induced expulsion from 172 Kashmiri women, were observed for 12 anthropometric measurements, namely, crown-heel length, crown-rump length, trunk height, head length, head circumference upper-arm length, fore-arm length, hand length, thigh length, leg length, foot length and weight.

The general pattern of age changes in various body dimensions conforms to the sigmoid nature of human fetal growth. Comparison of the present findings with those from other studies reveals no definite population trends. The mean values for various anthropometric variables of Kashmiri fetuses lie within the overall range of observations made by various authors.     

Association of leg length with overweight and obesity in children aged 5–15 years: A cross-sectional study

Background: Short leg length (LL) and childhood obesity have been independently associated with a higher risk for adult disease. However, the contribution of relative LL to overweight and obesity in children remains an under-researched area.

Aim: To utilize data from a large cross-sectional anthropometric survey to assess the association of LL to height ratio (LLHR, leg length/height) with measures of overweight and obesity in British children.

Methods: Children were analysed from the bottom and top body mass index (BMI) standard deviation score (SDS) quartiles (3825 children, boys=1686) or waist circumference (WC) SDS quartiles (3824 children, boys=1687). The top quartile was defined as the ‘high’ BMI or WC SDS group and the lower bottom quartile as the ‘low’ BMI or WC SDS group. Height and LL were expressed as SDSs using current references and LLHR was calculated.

Results: Children in the ‘high’ groups were taller with longer legs but had a lower LLHR across most ages. The magnitude of the difference was greater for BMI than WC in both genders.

Conclusion: Altered body dimensions appear to be linked to measures of overweight and obesity in children but longitudinal studies are needed to confirm this suggestion.     

Measures of adiposity in two cohorts of Hawaiian school children

Background: Native Hawaiians have high rates of obesity and obesity-related diseases compared with non-Hawaiians in Hawaii, and the relation between this ethnic disparity in adiposity and socioeconomic status (SES) in children is unclear.

Aim: The present study compared measures of adiposity in two cohorts of school children residing in the Hilo area of Hawaii and related these measures to parental reports of ethnicity, household income and parent educational attainment.

Subjects and methods: All children in either Kindergarten (mean age 5.6 years) or third grade (mean age 8.7 years) in eight elementary schools in the Hilo area were invited to participate. A total of 125 children had anthropometric, bioelectric impedance and air displacement plethysmography measurements taken and their parents answered questions about household income, parental educational attainment and genealogical background that included ethnicity of ancestors.

Results: Boys and girls in both cohorts had stature approximately at the 50^th percentile (Z-score = 0) of national samples (CDC data). Z-scores of BMI were elevated compared to the CDC reference curves, but were significantly higher in male Native Hawaiian children in the older cohort among whom nearly 50% had a BMI above the 95^th percentile for age. In the younger cohort, there was no significant ethnic difference in adiposity measures. In the older cohort, Native Hawaiian boys had significantly higher adiposity measures than their classmates. Adiposity in third grade girls was significantly and inversely related to their father's educational attainment. Percentage of Hawaiian ancestry was not significantly related to adiposity measures.

Conclusions: Ethnic disparity in adiposity among Native Hawaiians compared with non-Hawaiian age mates occurs after the age of 6 years, and is confined to males in this sample. For older girls, father's, but not mother's, educational attainment was inversely related to adiposity.     

木雅人的手长宽、足长宽与身高的关系

目的探讨四川木雅人手长、手宽、足长、足宽与身高的关系,为人类学、法医学及临床医学提供参考,同时为中国人体质调查积累资料。方法按人类学规定的方法和标准,对年龄在20~70岁四川省木雅人157人(男77名,女80名)的手长、手宽、足长、足宽和身高进行测量统计学分析。结果得出手长、手宽、足长、足宽、身高的均数及相关系数,各组相关系数r在0.279~0.623之间,手长与身高、手宽与身高、足长与身高、足宽与身高呈现相关性,其r分别为:男性0.285,女性0.345;男性0.500,女性0.379;男性0.623,女性0.620;男性0.359,女性0.279。结论由此推算出的8个回归方程可推算出四川木雅人身高。     

Leg length is associated with lower values of inflammatory markers in older Chinese: The Guangzhou Biobank Cohort Study

Background: In developed western populations, longer legs are a biomarker of better childhood conditions and negatively associated with cardiovascular disease risk factors. These associations are less obvious in non-western settings. However, early life is also a key immune system development phase.

Aim: To examine the associations of height, leg length, sitting height and leg length/sitting height ratio with inflammatory markers (white blood, lymphocyte and granulocyte cell counts and C-reactive protein (CRP)) in a developing population of southern China.

Subjects and methods: This study used multivariable linear regression to examine the adjusted associations in 30?499 Chinese (50+ years).

Results: Height z-score was associated with lower white blood, lymphocyte and granulocyte cell counts. Leg length z-score was associated with lower white blood, lymphocyte and granulocyte cell counts and CRP. Sitting height z-score was associated with lower white blood and granulocyte cell counts, but not with lymphocyte cell count or CRP. Leg length/sitting height ratio z-score was associated with lower white blood, lymphocyte and granulocyte cell counts and CRP.

Conclusion: Factors enabling more early growth may also lead to changes in immunity that are associated with reduced CVD risk.     

Associations between anthropometric variables and reproductive performance in a Papua New Guinea highland population

Associations between anthropometric variation and reproductive performance have important ecological and evolutionary implications. Bivariate associations between measures of reproductive performance (live births and offspring still living at the time of interview) and 24 anthropometric variables were examined in 150 females, aged 21–44 years, from the Eastern Highlands district of Papua New Guinea. Where significant linear or curvilinear associations with age existed, the reproductive and anthropometric variables were age-corrected. Linear, quadratic and cubic regressions were computed for each bivariate regression of age-corrected reproductive variable on age-corrected anthropometric trait. Positive linear regressions were found in the cases of body weight, triceps skinfold and head breadth. Positive cubic regressions were found in the cases of upper arm circumference, calf circumference, bicondylar femur and wrist breadth. It is suggested that these associations may reflect important ecological factors which influence both anthropometric and reproductive variation. U-shaped associations were found in the cases of wrist breadth and bicondylar femur. Inverted U-shaped associations were found for stature, sitting height, bizygomatic diameter and morphological face height. These curvilinear associations may be interpreted in terms of natural selection, and suggest that stature and sitting height may be undergoing stabilizing selection in this population.     

Spatial parameters of walking gait and footedness

OBJECTIVE: The present study was undertaken to assess whether footedness has effects on selected spatial and angular parameters of able-bodied gait by evaluating footprints of young adults. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A total of 112 males and 93 females were selected from among students and staff members of the University of Malawi using a simple random sampling method. Footedness of subjects was assessed by the Waterloo Footedness Questionnaire Revised. Gait at natural speed was recorded using the footprint method. The following spatial parameters of gait were derived from the inked footprint sequences of subjects: step and stride lengths, gait angle and base of gait. The anthropometric measurements taken were weight, height, leg and foot length, foot breadth, shoulder width, and hip and waist circumferences. RESULTS: The prevalence of right-, left- and mix-footedness in the whole sample of young Malawian adults was 81%, 8.3% and 10.7%, respectively. One-way analysis of variance did not reveal a statistically significant difference between footedness categories in the mean values of anthropometric measurements (p > 0.05 for all variables). Gender differences in step and stride length values were not statistically significant. Correction of these variables for stature did not change the trend. Males had significantly broader steps than females. Normalized values of base of gait had similar gender difference. The group means of step length and normalized step length of the right and left feet were similar, for males and females. There was a significant side difference in the gait angle in both gender groups of volunteers with higher mean values on the left side compared to the right one (t = 2.64, p < 0.05 for males, and t = 2.78, p < 0.05 for females). One-way analysis of variance did not demonstrate significant difference between footedness categories in the mean values of step length, gait angle, bilateral differences in step length and gait angle, stride length, gait base and normalized gait variables of male and female volunteers (p > 0.05 for all variables). CONCLUSIONS: The present study demonstrated that footedness does not affect spatial and angular parameters of walking gait.     

The phenotype of 45,X females: an anthropometric quantification

Twenty-five anthropometric measurements were recorded from 48 adult 45,X females, 24 of their first-degree female relatives, and 95 control females. When 45,X females were compared with their female relatives and control females they were smaller in most dimensions, the largest differences being found in weight, stature, sitting height, arm length, leg length, bi-iliac diameter, bitrochanteric breadth and wrist width. No significant differences were found in head dimensions. The comparison after allowance for size showed that 45,X females are relatively smaller in stature, sitting height, arm length, leg length and bitrochanteric breadth and larger in bideltoid breadth, waist breadth, upper arm circumference, chest circumference and triceps skinfold. However, in proportion to height the relative lengths of sitting height, arm length and leg length were similar to those of normal females. The mother-45,X daughter correlation coefficients were significantly larger than those of sister-45,X sister pairs in body dimensions whereas they were more similar in head dimensions. The present findings suggest the presence of genes on the X chromosome having effect on growth in general. This conclusion is in accordance with the results of several earlier studies which have indicated an X-chromosomal influence on stature, tooth size and enamel thickness.     

Changes in body and head dimensions in urban Sardinian children (3-5 years) from 1986 to 2001

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: The study describes and discusses the changes in body and head dimensions of urban pre-school children from Sardinia in a 15-year period. METHODOLOGY: The mean values of 11 anthropometric variables measured in 2001 in 414 children (209 males, 205 females) from 3 to 5 years old were compared with those measured in 1986 in 262 coeval children (131 males, 131 females). The t-test was used to evaluate whether the differences between the two samples, divided by sex, were statistically significant. RESULTS: For each age class and sex, the differences between the means were significant for the following anthropometric variables: weight, stature, estimated lower limb length, biacromial breadth, bicristal breadth, body mass index, relative sitting height index, head length, and cephalic index. In contrast, the differences between the means were not significant for sitting height and head breadth. CONCLUSIONS: The pre-school children of Cagliari measured in 2001 were on average taller and especially heavier than their same-sex peers measured in 1986; the increase in height was clearly due to the increased length of the lower limbs. The transverse dimensions of the trunk also increased, while its length remained largely the same. Head length also increased, while the relative sitting height and cephalic indexes decreased.     

Anthropometric variability in the USA: 1971–2002

Aim: The study analysed variability in physical stature, weight, and body mass index (BMI) in the USA during 1971–2002. Subjects: Subjects were non-Hispanic Blacks and Whites, 2–74 years of age from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES I–III and 1999–2002). Methods: The coefficient of variation and the standard deviation of the logarithm of stature, weight, and BMI were used to assess anthropometric variability for groups defined by age, race, sex, income, and survey year. Weighted ordinary least squares regressions were used to estimate the effect of socio-economic variables on anthropometric variability. Results: (a) The relation between age and variability in weight or BMI resembles an inverted U, (b) men have lower variability in BMI than women, (c) Blacks and the poor have greater variability in weight and BMI than Whites or than the non-poor, and (d) variability in anthropometric indices increased during 1971–2002. Results were robust to the measure of variability used and to the use of the mean and mean square of the anthropometric indicators as explanatory variables. Conclusion: Since anthropometric indices correlate reliably with canonical indicators of well-being (e.g. income), growing variability in anthropometric indices, particularly among the Blacks and the poor, signals growing inequality in quality of life—a worrisome trend.     

Anthropometric determination of body volume,body density and segmental volume in adult Indian women

Body density, total body volume, leg volume and arm volume of 65 young Indian women 20–25 years were measured experimentally. In addition, a series of 61 anthropometric measurements were also taken on each subject.

Correlations of leg volume with total body volume and body density were 0·91 and ?0·73 respectively and of arm volume with total body volume and body density were 0·84 and ?0·66 respectively.

Hip girth alone showed a very high positive correlation (r=0·94) with body volume and on selective stepwise multiple regression analysis, a combination of even four anthropometric measurements, namely, hip girth, lower thigh girth, ankle girth and shoulder diameter gave an extremely high positive multiple correlation coefficient (R=0·98) with body volume.

Selective stepwise multiple linear regression analysis was conducted also to estimate leg volume, arm volume and body density and stepwise regression equations up to 4th step for estimating each parameter are given.     

Growth in some physical dimensions in relation to adolescent growth spurt among rural Indian children

Measurements other than weight and height are rarely used in adolescent growth assessment. It is necessary to examine changes in other physical dimensions especially in relation to spurt in height as stature growth has a significance in the assessment of adolescent growth. The present study, therefore, reports data on four such measurements viz. foot length, sitting height, leg length and shoulder width along with height in a semilongitudinal growth study carried out over a 3 year period, on rural Indian boys (n = 587) and girls (n = 433), to examine the occurrence of their maximum increments in relation to spurt in height. Our analysis shows that the sequence of spurt in these physical dimensions is the same in the case of boys and girls, viz. spurt in foot length and leg length occurs before age at peak height velocity (14.3 yr--boys, 12.1 yr--girls) while that for sitting height and shoulder width occurs after attaining the peak height velocity. While foot length is the first one to reach peak (14 yr--boys, 11 yr--girls), shoulder width is the last one (16 yr--boys, 14 yr--girls) in this sequence. Thus the duration between the first spurt and the last spurt was observed to be larger in case of girls (3 yr) as compared to boys (2 yr) and apart from biological differences it could be partly due to the differential treatment received by rural girls. Sitting heights and leg lengths of rural children were significantly (p < 0.01) lower compared to Indian well-off and British children suggest that undernutrition prevailing in rural community affects all components of linear growth.