TY - JOUR A1 - Novina, Novina A1 - Hermanussen, Michael A1 - Scheffler, Christiane A1 - Pulungan, Aman B. A1 - Ismiarto, Yoyos Dias A1 - Andriyana, Yudhie A1 - Biben, Vitriana A1 - Setiabudiawan, Budi T1 - Indonesian National Growth Reference Charts better reflect height and weight of children in West Java, Indonesia, than WHO Child Growth Standards JF - Journal of Clinical Research in Pediatric Endocrinology N2 - Objective: The Indonesia Basic Health Research 2018 indicates that Indonesian children are still among the shortest in the world. When referred to World Health Organization Child Growth Standards (WHOCGS), the prevalence of stunting reaches up to 43% in several Indonesian districts. Indonesian National Growth Reference Charts (INGRC) were established in order to better distinguish between healthy short children and children with growth disorders. We analyzed height and weight measurements of healthy Indonesian children using INGRC and WHOCGS. Methods: 6972 boys and 5800 girls (n = 12,772), aged 0-59 months old, from Bandung District were measured. Z-scores of length/height and body mass index were calculated based on INGRC and WHOCGS. Results: Under 5-year-old Indonesian children raised in Bandung are short and slim. Mean height z-scores of boys is -2.03 [standard deviation (SD) 1.31], mean height z-scores of girls is -2.03 (SD 1.31) when referred to WHOCGS indicating that over 50 % of these children are stunted. Bandung children are heterogeneous, with substantial subpopulations of tall children. Depending on the growth reference used, between 9% and 15% of them are wasted. Wasted children are on average half a SD taller than their peers. Conclusion: WHOCGS seriously overestimates the true prevalence of undernutrition in Indonesian children. The present investigation fails to support evidence of undernutrition at a prevalence similar to the over 50% prevalence of stunting (WHOCGS) versus 13.3% (INGRC). We suggest refraining from using WHOCGS, and instead applying INGRC that closely mirror height and weight increments in Bandung children. INGRC appear superior for practical and clinical purposes, such as detecting growth and developmental disorders. KW - Anthropometric measurement KW - Indonesian National Growth Reference Charts KW - World Health Organization Child Growth Standards KW - Bandung District KW - children KW - undernutrition Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4274/jcrpe.galenos.2020.2020.0044 SN - 1308-5727 SN - 1308-5735 VL - 12 IS - 4 SP - 410 EP - 419 PB - Galenos Yayincilik CY - Istanbul ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hermanussen, Michael A1 - Scheffler, Christiane T1 - Secular trends in gestational weight gain and parity on birth weight BT - an editorial JF - Acta paediatrica : nurturing the child KW - birth weight KW - gestational weight gain KW - multipara KW - parity KW - primipara KW - secular trend Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/apa.15678 SN - 0803-5253 SN - 1651-2227 VL - 110 IS - 4 SP - 1094 EP - 1096 PB - Wiley CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gomula, Aleksandra A1 - Nowak-Szczepanska, Natalia A1 - Hermanussen, Michael A1 - Scheffler, Christiane A1 - Koziel, Slawomir T1 - Trends in growth and developmental tempo in boys aged 7 to 18 years between 1966 and 2012 in Poland JF - American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council N2 - Objectives: To assess trends in growth in different developmental periods and trends in developmental tempo in Polish boys between 1966 and 2012. Methods: Data on 34 828 boys aged 7 to 18 years were collected during Polish Anthropological Surveys conducted in 1966, 1978, 1988, and 2012. Biological parameters, related to onset of adolescent growth spurt (OGS) and peak height velocity (PHV), were derived from a Preece-Baines 1 model (PB1). Childhood (height at 7 years of age), pre-adolescent (height at OGS) and adolescent growth (adult height minus height at OGS) were identified. Results: Positive secular trend between 1966 and 2012 in adult height accounted for, on average, 1.5 cm/decade, with varying intensity between the Surveys. Decline in both age at OGS and APHV between 1966 and 2012 (1.5 and 1.4 years, respectively) indicated an acceleration in developmental tempo, on average, by 0.3 year/decade. Increases in the contribution to the trend in adult height gained during growth in particular developmental periods between 1966 and 2012 were as followed-childhood: 0.6%, pre-adolescent growth: -3.1%, adolescent growth: 3.1%. Conclusions: Secular trend in developmental tempo and growth among boys reflects changes in living conditions and socio-political aspirations in Poland during nearly 50 years. Acceleration in tempo is already visible at age at OGS, whereas the trend in adult height occurs largely during adolescence, pointing to different regulation of developmental tempo and growth in body height. This finding emphasizes the importance of extending public health intervention into children's growth up until adolescence. Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.23548 SN - 1042-0533 SN - 1520-6300 VL - 33 IS - 6 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Maqsood, Arusa A1 - Naumenko, Daniel J. A1 - Hermanussen, Michael A1 - Scheffler, Christiane A1 - Groth, Detlef T1 - No correlation between short term weight gain and lower leg length gain in healthy German children JF - Journal of biological and clinical anthropology : Anthropologischer Anzeiger ; Mitteilungsorgan der Gesellschaft für Anthropologie N2 - Background: Length-for-age is considered the indicator of choice in monitoring the long-term impact of chronic nutritional deficiency. Aim: We hypothesized that short term increments of body weight cross-correlate with increments of the lower leg length. Sample and methods: We re-analyzed the association between weekly measurements of weight and of lower leg length in 34 healthy German children, aged 2.9-15.9 years. The data are a subset of measurements originally published in 1988 (Hermanussen et al. 1988a). As the growth measurements were often not equally spaced in time due to interposed holidays and illness, the incremental rates for weight and lower leg length were smoothed using spline functions. Autocorrelation and cross-correlation functions were calculated for weight increments and lower leg length increments. Results: Height and weight increments are pulsatile. Autocorrelations indicated that mini growth spurts occur at irregular intervals. Lack of cross-correlations between weight and lower leg length indicated that mini spurts in weight gain do not coincide with mini spurts in length gain even when considering lag times of up to 10 weeks. Short term changes of weight gain and lower leg length gain in healthy children show no temporal association. KW - knemometry KW - short term growth KW - mini growth spurts KW - lower leg length Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1127/anthranz/2020/1237 SN - 0003-5548 SN - 2363-7099 VL - 77 IS - 5 SP - 399 EP - 403 PB - Schweizerbart CY - Stuttgart ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Niere, Oliver A1 - Spannemann, Lisa A1 - Stenzel, Patrick A1 - Bogin, Barry A1 - Hermanussen, Michael A1 - Scheffler, Christiane T1 - Plasticity of human growth BT - a systematic review on psychosocial factors influencing growth JF - Journal of biological and clinical anthropology : Anthropologischer Anzeiger ; Mitteilungsorgan der Gesellschaft für Anthropologie N2 - Background: This systematic review aimed at collecting, analyzing and summarizing scientific studies focusing on psychosocial factors that influence linear growth among humans. Methods: The online database "PubMed" was used in order to acquire suitable scientific studies. These studies were evaluated based on clearly defined criteria that determine whether a study was to be excluded or included in the literature review. In the end, a total sum of 36 studies remained, which were carefully analyzed and used to generate an overview of the association between psychosocial factors and linear growth. Results: In the 36 reviewed studies, different social and psychological factors, such as socioeconomic status, parental education or emotional deprivation were set in relation to physical growth among humans. The studies were listed and summarized, depending on the investigated psychosocial factor. A clear association between psychosocial factors and growth could be observed in most of the reviewed studies. Discussion: Based on the results of the reviewed studies it could be concluded that the regulation of linear growth is also subject to different psychosocial factors. The way in which the developing human and the specific social environment interact seemed to have a major impact on linear growth. Statusspecific stress was discussed as one possible explanation for the regulating mechanism of human linear growth. KW - linear growth KW - final body height KW - regulation KW - psychosocial factors KW - social factors KW - psychological factors Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1127/anthranz/2020/1223 SN - 0003-5548 SN - 2363-7099 VL - 77 IS - 5 SP - 431 EP - 443 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 - Apanasewicz, Anna A1 - Groth, Detlef A1 - Scheffler, Christiane A1 - Hermanussen, Michael A1 - Piosek, Magdalena A1 - Wychowaniec, Patrycja A1 - Babiszewska, Magdalena A1 - Barbarska, Olga A1 - Ziomkiewicz, Anna T1 - Traumatized women’s infants are bigger than children of mothers without traumas JF - Journal of biological and clinical anthropology : Anthropologischer Anzeiger N2 - Life history theory predicts that experiencing stress during the early period of life will result in accelerated growth and earlier maturation. Indeed, animal and some human studies documented a faster pace of growth in the offspring of stressed mothers. Recent advances in epigenetics suggest that the effects of early developmental stress might be passed across the generations. However, evidence for such intergenerational transmission is scarce, at least in humans. Here we report the results of the study investigating the association between childhood trauma in mothers and physical growth in their children during the first months of life. Anthropometric and psychological data were collected from 99 mothers and their exclusively breastfed children at the age of 5 months. The mothers completed the Early Life Stress Questionnaire to assess childhood trauma. The questionnaire includes questions about the most traumatic events that they had experienced before the age of 12 years. Infant growth was evaluated based on the anthropometric measurements of weight, length, and head circumference. Also, to control for the size of maternal investment, the composition of breast milk samples taken at the time of infant anthropometric measurements was investigated. The children of mothers with higher early life stress tended to have higher weight and bigger head circumference. The association between infant anthropometrics and early maternal stress was not affected by breast milk composition, suggesting that the effect of maternal stress on infant growth was independent of the size of maternal investment. Our results demonstrate that early maternal trauma may affect the pace of growth in the offspring and, in consequence, lead to a faster life history strategy. This effect might be explained via changes in offspring epigenetics. KW - maternal trauma KW - early life trauma KW - breastfed infant development KW - POLS Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1127/anthranz/2020/1285 SN - 0003-5548 SN - 2363-7099 VL - 77 IS - 5 SP - 359 EP - 374 PB - Schweizerbart science publishers CY - Stuttgart ER -