TY  - JOUR
A1  - Hermanussen, Michael
A1  - Scheffler, Christiane
A1  - Groth, Detlef
A1  - Aßmann, Christian
T1  - Height and skeletal morphology in relation to modern life style
JF  - Journal of physiological anthropology
N2  - Height and skeletal morphology strongly relate to life style. Parallel to the decrease in physical activity and locomotion, modern people are slimmer in skeletal proportions. In German children and adolescents, elbow breadth and particularly relative pelvic breadth (50th centile of bicristal distance divided by body height) have significantly decreased in recent years. Even more evident than the changes in pelvic morphology are the rapid changes in body height in most modern countries since the end-19th and particularly since the mid-20th century. Modern Japanese mature earlier; the age at take-off (ATO, the age at which the adolescent growth spurt starts) decreases, and they are taller at all ages. Preece-Baines modelling of six national samples of Japanese children and adolescents, surveyed between 1955 and 2000, shows that this gain in height is largely an adolescent trend, whereas height at take-off (HTO) increased by less than 3 cm since 1955; adolescent growth (height gain between ATO and adult age) increased by 6 cm. The effect of globalization on the modern post-war Japanese society ("community effect in height") on adolescent growth is discussed.
KW  - Pelvic breadth
KW  - Elbow breadth
KW  - Growth
KW  - Adult height
KW  - Community effect in height
Y1  - 2015
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1186/s40101-015-0080-4
SN  - 1880-6805
VL  - 34
PB  - BioMed Central
CY  - London
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Hermanussen, Michael
A1  - Bogin, Barry
A1  - Scheffler, Christiane
T1  - Stunting, starvation and refeeding
BT  - a review of forgotten 19th and early 20th century literature
JF  - Acta paediatrica : nurturing the child
N2  - Aim: To scrutinize to what extent modern ideas about nutrition effects on growth are supported by historic observations in European populations. Method: We reviewed 19th and early 20th century paediatric journals in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, the third largest European library with an almost complete collection of the German medical literature. During a three-day visit, we inspected 15 bookshelf meters of literature not available in electronic format. Results: Late 19th and early 20th century breastfed European infants and children, independent of social strata, grew far below World Health Organisation (WHO) standards and 15-30% of adequately-fed children would be classified as stunted by the WHO standards. Historic sources indicate that growth in height is largely independent of the extent and nature of the diet. Height catch-up after starvation was greater than catch-up reported in modern nutrition intervention studies, and allowed for unimpaired adult height. Conclusion: Historical studies are indispensable to understand why stunting does not equate with undernutrition and why modern diet interventions frequently fail to prevent stunting. Appropriateness and effect size of modern nutrition interventions on growth need revision.
KW  - Child growth
KW  - Historic literature
KW  - Refeeding
KW  - Stunting
KW  - Undernutrition
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1111/apa.14311
SN  - 0803-5253
SN  - 1651-2227
VL  - 107
IS  - 7
SP  - 1166
EP  - 1176
PB  - Wiley
CY  - Hoboken
ER  -