TY - GEN A1 - Hermanussen, Michael A1 - Scheffler, Christiane A1 - Groth, Detlef A1 - Bogin, Barry T1 - Student work on trends in infant and child growth BT - an editorial T2 - Journal of biological and clinical anthropology : Anthropologischer Anzeiger : Mitteilungsorgan der Gesellschaft für Anthropologie KW - nutrition KW - impact on growth KW - geographic neighborhood KW - mortality bias KW - limb disproportions KW - physical activity KW - socioeconomic status KW - parental age KW - statistical tools Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1127/anthranz/2019/1052 SN - 0003-5548 VL - 76 IS - 5 SP - 363 EP - 364 PB - Schweizerbart CY - Stuttgart ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hermanussen, Michael A1 - Groth, Detlef A1 - Scheffler, Christiane T1 - Statistical approaches to developmental and growth data of children and adolescents BT - an editorial to student research conducted during the 3rd international student summer school, July 2019, Potsdam and Gülpe, Germany JF - Journal of biological and clinical anthropology : Anthropologischer Anzeiger ; Mitteilungsorgan der Gesellschaft für Anthropologie KW - human growth KW - bone accumulation KW - environmental effects KW - migration KW - socioeconomic status KW - parental education KW - nutrition KW - statistical tools Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1127/anthranz/2020/1302 SN - 0003-5548 SN - 2363-7099 VL - 77 IS - 5 SP - 355 EP - 357 PB - Schweizerbart CY - Stuttgart ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Friebel, Francis A1 - Hermanussen, Michael A1 - Scheffler, Christiane T1 - Popular ideas and convictions about factors influencing the growth as well as the adult height of children BT - a German-French comparison JF - Journal of biological and clinical anthropology : Anthropologischer Anzeiger ; Mitteilungsorgan der Gesellschaft für Anthropologie N2 - Common knowledge suggests that growth in height is influenced by nutrition, genetics, health, and environmental and general living conditions. In addition, modern studies showed that also social mobility and dominance within the social group, may significantly affect adolescent growth and final height. The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of popular ideas and beliefs about factors influencing the growth on the biology of child and adolescent growth. We hypothesized that these beliefs are culture-specific and age-dependent. We investigated 307 French and 315 German participants of all age-groups. We collected polarising statements by questionnaire that the participants had to agree or disagree on. French participants see a connection between nutrition and the body height of children. This is different in Germany and may be due to the fact that French food culture is more traditional. Genetic factors were generally overestimated and considered as the most important determinants of longitudinal-growth. The participants denied an influence of disease and social status. Participants over 35 years of age considered adult height to be independent of environmental factors. In conclusion, popular beliefs partly depend on culture and appear to change with age as a result of growing experience. KW - nutrition KW - genetics KW - health KW - environmental and general living conditions KW - child growth KW - adolescent growth KW - final height Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1127/anthranz/2019/0972 SN - 0003-5548 VL - 76 IS - 5 SP - 365 EP - 370 PB - Schweizerbart CY - Stuttgart ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rösler, Antonia A1 - Scheffler, Christiane A1 - Hermanussen, Michael T1 - No evidence of growth impairment after forced migration in Polish school children after World War II JF - Human biology and public health N2 - Background: Migration is omnipresent. It can come hand in hand with emotional stress which is known to influence the growth of children. Objective: The aim of this study was to analyse whether type of migration (forced or voluntary) and the geographic direction had influenced the growth of Polish children after World War II. Sample and Methods: A sub dataset of 2,208 individuals between the ages of 2-20, created from data of the 2nd Polish Anthropological Survey carried out in 1966–1969, including anthropometrical data and social and demographic information based on questionnaire, was used to analyse migration effects. Results: No association could be found between the direction of migration and the height of the children. The confidence intervals of the means of all classified migration categories overlap significantly and the effect size of the influence of migration category on height is ds=.140, which is too low to see any effects, even if there were one. Conclusion: Neither forced nor voluntary migration in Poland after World War II led to a change in height in children of migrating families. KW - nutrition KW - stunting KW - socioeconomy KW - education KW - secular changes KW - pubertal timing Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.52905/hbph2023.1.68 SN - 2748-9957 VL - 1 PB - Universitätsverlag Potsdam CY - Potsdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Scheffler, Christiane A1 - Kruetzfeldt, Louisa-Marie A1 - Dasgupta, Parasmani A1 - Hermanussen, Michael T1 - No association between fat tissue and height in 5019 children and adolescents, measured between 1982 and 2011 in Kolkata/India JF - Journal of biological and clinical anthropology JF - Anthropologischer Anzeiger ; Mitteilungsorgan der Gesellschaft für Anthropologie N2 - Body height has traditionally been looked upon as a mirror of the condition of society, short height being an indicator of poor nutritional status, poor education, and low social status and income. This view has recently been questioned. We aimed to quantify the effects of nutrition, education, sibship size, and household income, factors that are conventionally considered to be related to child growth, on body height of children and adolescents raised under urban Indian conditions. Sample and methods: We re-analyzed several anthropometric measurements and questionnaires with questions on sibship size, fathers’ and mother’s education, and monthly family expenditure, from two cross-sectional growth studies performed in Kolkata, India. The first Kolkata Growth Study (KG1) took place in 1982-1983, with data on 825 Bengali boys aged 7 to 16 years; and the second Kolkata Growth Study (KG2) between 1999 and 2011 with data of 1999 boys aged 7 to 21 years from Bengali Hindu families, and data of 2195 girls obtained between 2005 and 2011. Results: Indian children showed positive insignificant secular trends in height and a significant secular trend in weight and BMI between between 1982 and 2011. Yet, multiple regression analysis failed to detect an association between nutritional status (expressed in terms of skinfold thickness), monthly family expenditure and sibship size with body height of these children. The analysis only revealed an influence of parental education on female, but not on male height. Conclusion: We failed to detect influences of nutrition, sibship size, and monthly family expenditure on body height in a large sample of children and adolescents raised in Kolkata, India, between 1982 and 2011. We found a mild positive association between parental education and girls’ height. The data question current concepts regarding the impact of nutrition, and household and economic factors on growth, but instead underscore the effect of parental education. KW - body height KW - nutrition KW - social growth adjustment Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1127/anthranz/2018/0827 SN - 0003-5548 VL - 74 IS - 5 SP - 403 EP - 411 PB - Schweizerbart CY - Stuttgart ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mumm, Rebekka A1 - Scheffler, Christiane T1 - Lack of evidence of nutritional influence on height in four low and middle-income countries JF - Journal of biological and clinical anthropology : Anthropologischer Anzeiger ; Mitteilungsorgan der Gesellschaft für Anthropologie N2 - ‘Nutrition influences height’ has been a common concept for the last decades. Recently, contradictory results occurred when studying the effectiveness of nutritional interventions, questioning the interaction of nutrition and height. Therefore, we hypothesize that, independently of population/country, nutrition does not affect height in children and adolescents. We analyzed data from the study “Young Lives” which was performed in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam to describe the health situation of children. We used linear mixed effect models to analyze the influence of nutrition on height. Furthermore, we used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to test if the commonly assumed hypothetical interaction of height and nutrition can be supported by data from low and middle-income countries. Estimates for nutrition on height of linear mixed effect models were about zero and randomly significant or non-significant in all analyzed countries. Furthermore, SEM led to the rejection of the ‘nutrition influences height’-hypothesis, as data did not support the models based on this hypothesis. We do not find evidence for a nutritional influence on height in children and adolescents from low and middle-income countries. The widespread assumption that inadequate diet is reflected in short stature, which all modern nutritional interventions are based on, needs to be critically reviewed. KW - nutrition KW - height KW - children KW - low and middle-income Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1127/anthranz/2019/0988 SN - 0003-5548 VL - 76 IS - 5 SP - 421 EP - 432 PB - Schweizerbart CY - Stuttgart ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hermanussen, Michael A1 - Scheffler, Christiane A1 - Martin, Lidia A1 - Groth, Detlef A1 - Waxmonsky, James G. A1 - Swanson, James A1 - Nowak-Szczepanska, Natalia A1 - Gomula, Aleksandra A1 - Apanasewicz, Anna A1 - Konarski, Jan M. A1 - Malina, Robert M. A1 - Bartkowiak, Sylwia A1 - Lebedeva, Lidia A1 - Suchomlinov, Andrej A1 - Konstantinov, Vsevolod A1 - Blum, Werner A1 - Limony, Yehuda A1 - Chakraborty, Raja A1 - Kirchengast, Sylvia A1 - Tutkuviene, Janina A1 - Jakimaviciene, Egle Marija A1 - Cepuliene, Ramune A1 - Franken, Daniel A1 - Navazo, Bárbara A1 - Moelyo, Annang G. A1 - Satake, Takashi A1 - Koziel, Slawomir ED - Scheffler, Christiane ED - Koziel, Slawomir ED - Hermanussen, Michael ED - Bogin, Barry T1 - Growth, Nutrition and Economy BT - Proceedings of the 27th Aschauer Soiree, held at Krobielowice, Poland, November 16th 2019 T2 - Human Biology and Public Health N2 - Twenty-three scientists met at Krobielowice, Poland to discuss the role of growth, nutrition and economy on body size. Contrasting prevailing concepts, re-analyses of studies in Indonesian and Guatemalan school children with high prevalence of stunting failed to provide evidence for an association between nutritional status and body height. Direct effects of parental education on growth that were not transmitted via nutrition were shown in Indian datasets using network analysis and novel statistical methods (St. Nicolas House Analysis) that translate correlation matrices into network graphs. Data on Polish children suggest significant impact of socioeconomic sensitivity on child growth, with no effect of maternal money satisfaction. Height and maturation tempo affect the position of a child among its peers. Correlations also exist between mood disorders and height. Secular changes in height and weight varied across decades independent of population size. Historic and recent Russian data showed that height of persons whose fathers performed manual work were on average four cm shorter than persons whose fathers were high-degree specialists. Body height, menarcheal age, and body proportions are sensitive to socioeconomic variables. Additional topics included delayed motherhood and its associations with newborn size; geographic and socioeconomic indicators related to low birth weight, prematurity and stillbirth rate; data on anthropometric history of Brazil, 1850-1950; the impact of central nervous system stimulants on the growth of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder; and pituitary development and growth hormone secretion. Final discussions debated on reverse causality interfering between social position, and adolescent growth and developmental tempo. KW - nutrition KW - stunting KW - socioeconomy KW - education KW - secular changes KW - pubertal timing Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.52905/hbph.v1.1 SN - 2748-9957 VL - 2021 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 13 PB - Universitätsverlag Potsdam CY - Potsdam ER -