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Benefit of regular Exercise on Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Motor Development in Early Childhood
(2004)
The aim of the study is the analysis of body composition, motor development and cardiovascular parameters of preschool-children. In 2001/2002 a longitudinal study started in 17 nursery schools in Berlin. A total of 160 children out of the 264 children participated in a regular exercise programme. After 24 months of training significant differences of body composition, motor skills and cardiovascular parameters between 5 complete year old children of the intervention and the control group were observed. The results show that such an exercise programme is successful as a preventive measure to decrease the risk of obesity.
Exceeding weight gain in childhood is a prevailing issue in industrialised countries, such as in Germany. The aim of this study was to detect a critical age for exceeding weight gain. It is assumed that especially in the early years of life, the years of nursery school age, the individual development of weight is fundamental for the prediction of obesity. The data of 638 children (324 boys and 314 girls) and the data of additional 1390 children of a preceding longitudinal study were analysed. The results show that overweight newborns are not at higher risk of becoming overweight children later, in the first place. But the results identify a high risk of becoming overweight for children 4.5 years old through a BMI rebound. In addition, this comparably earlier BMI rebound is linked with an increasing percentage of body fat. This leads to the assumption, that a comparably early BMI rebound is remarkably atypical for healthy child development. The results are also interrelated with the test person's sex. Endangered girls are of pyknomorphic body type. In contrast, the boys' results are independent of the body type. Obesity of boys therefore is strongly assumed to be caused by environmental factors.
Growth and body height have always been topics interesting to the public. In particular, the stupendous increase of some 15-19 cm in final adult height during the last 150 years in most European countries (the "secular trend"), the concomitant changes in body and head proportions, the tendency towards early onset of sexual maturation, the changes in the age when final height is being reached, and the very recent trend in body mass index, have generated much scientific literature. The marked plasticity of growth in height and weight over time causes problems. Child growth references differ between nations, they tend to quickly become out of date, and raise a number of questions regarding fitting methods, effects caused by selective drop-out, etc. New findings contradict common beliefs about the primary importance of nutritional and health related factors for secular changes in growth. There appears to be a broad age span from mid-childhood to early adolescence that is characterised by a peculiar insusceptibility. Environmental factors that are known to influence growth during this age span appear to have only little or no impact on final height. Major re- arrangements in height occur at an age when puberty has almost been completed and final height has almost been reached, implying that factors, which drive the secular trend in height, are limited to early childhood and late adolescence.
The aim of this methodological anthropometric study was to compare direct anthropometry and digital two- dimensional photogrammetry in 18 male and 27 female subjects, aged 24 to 65 years, from Potsdam, Germany. In view of the rising interest in reliable biometric kephalofacial data, we focussed on head and face measurements. Out of 34 classic facial anatomical landmarks, 27 landmarks were investigated both by direct anthropometry and 2D-photogrammetry; 7 landmarks could not be localized by 2D-photogrammetry. Twenty-six kephalofacial distances were analysed both by direct anthropometry and digital 2D-photogrammetry. Kephalofacial distances are on average 7.6% shorter when obtained by direct anthropometry. The difference between the two techniques is particularly evident in total head height (vertex-gnathion) due to the fact that vertex is usually covered by hair and escapes from photogrammetry. Also the distances photographic sellion-gnathion (1.3 cm, i. e. 11.6%) and nasal-gnathion (1.2 cm, i. e. 9.4%) differ by more than one centimetre. Differences below 0.5 cm between the two techniques were found when measuring mucosa-lip-height (2.2%), gonia (3.0%), glabella-stomion (3.9%), and nose height (glabella-subnasal) (4.0%). Only the estimates of forehead width were significantly narrower when obtained by 2D-photogrammetry (-1.4 cm, -13.1%). The methodological differences increased with increasing magnitude of the kephalometric distance. Apart from these limitations, both techniques are similarly valid and may replace each other.
Ample literature describes the history of the association between the advances in the health and wealth of people, and mortality rates, life expectancy and adult height. Twentynine German studies with n > 200 subjects published since 1848 on menarcheal age, were reanalyzed, and 101 studies from various other European and non-European countries. On average, mean age at menarche declined since the mid-19(th) century. Historic urban samples tended to decline earlier than rural groups, upper class women earlier than working class women. In Germany, minimum values for the age at menarche were seen already between the two World Wars (Leipzig 12.6 years in 1934, Halle 13.3 years in 1939). Values for mean age and SD for age at menarche were strongly associated. With improving historic circumstances, the two parameters declined in parallel. The standard deviation for menarcheal age dropped from over 2.5 years in mid-19th century France to little more or even less than 1 year in most modern countries. In the German studies the correlation between menarcheal age and SD was almost complete with r = 0.96 (y = 0.35x - 3.53). Similar associations between mean age at menarche and SD for age were found in other European countries. The obvious and immediate effects of historic events on menarcheal age, and particularly on the age distribution, indicate that menarche is a sensitive indicator of public health and wealth, and may be an appropriate estimator for the socio-economic background of historic populations.
Recent progress in modelling individual growth has been achieved by combining the principal component analysis and the maximum likelihood principle. This combination models growth even in incomplete sets of data and in data obtained at irregular intervals. We re-analysed late 18th century longitudinal growth of German boys from the boarding school Carlsschule in Stuttgart. The boys aged 6-23 years, were measured at irregular 3-12 monthly intervals during the period 1771-1793. At the age of 18 years, mean height was 1652 mm, but height variation was large. The shortest boy reached 1474 mm, the tallest 1826 mm. Measured height closely paralleled modelled height, with mean difference of 4 mm, SD 7 mm. Seasonal height variation was found. Low growth rates occurred in spring and high growth rates in summer and autumn. The present study demonstrates that combining the principal component analysis and the maximum likelihood principle enables growth modelling in historic height data also.
The variability of bone strength and skeletal robustness of young men - how it can be influenced
(2011)
Association between skeletal robustness and physical activity in schoolchildren - First results
(2011)
The purpose of this paper is to display the static strength capacities of healthy adults in different age categories. A total of 279 healthy German adults at the ages of 20 to 29 years, 50 to 59 years and 60 to 69 years generated their maximum static handgrip, index finger and thumb push strength, as well as their maximum opening strength on a smooth jar lid of 85 mm diameter and on a knurled bottle lid of 31 mm with their right hand. The results show larger male strength than female strength. Significant age-induced differences appear primarily in opening strengths between the age groups 20 to 29 and 50 to 59 years in male subjects and in female opening strengths between the age groups 20 to 29 and 60 to 69 years as well as between the age groups 50 to 59 and 60 to 69 years. Of greatest interest is that elderly men show the largest opening strengths.
Overweight as a global problem is a challenge to the health systems today and in the future. Detailed information about the development of body composition in children can help to design preventive measures to stop this trend. In the present study 1397 German children aged 6-12 complete years were investigated with anthropometric methods (i.e. height, weight, BMI, skeleton robustness, and percentage of body fat) in 2008/09. The results were compared with a 10 years old identical study. Today, the investigated children are a little bit smaller and the range of BMI and percentage of body fat is increasing. The large decrease of the skeletal robustness especially in the 10(th) and 3(rd) percentile is important. Decrease of physical activity as the most important reason for shrinking skeletal robustness is discussed.
Today, serious health problems as overweight and obesity are not just constricted to the developed world, but also increase in the developing countries (Prentice 2006, Ramachandram et al. 2002). Focusing on this issue, BMI and percentage of body fat were compared in 2094 schoolchildren from two cross-sectional studies from India and Germany investigated in 2008 and 2009. The German children are in all age groups significantly taller, whereas the Indian children show higher values in BMI (e.g. 12 years: Indian: around 22 kg/m(2); German: around 19 kg/m(2)) and in the percentage of body fat (e.g. 12 years: Indian: around 27 %; German: around 18-20%) in most of the investigated age groups. The Indian children have significantly higher BMI between 10 and 13 (boys) respectively 14 years (girls). Indian children showed significant higher percentage of body fat between 10 and 15 years (boys) and between 8 and 16 years (girls). The difference in overweight between Indian and German children was strongest at 11 (boys) and 12 (girls) years: 70 % of the Indian but 20% of the German children were classified as overweight. In countries such as India that undergo nutritional transition, a rapid increase in obesity and overweight is observed. In contrast to the industrialized countries, the risk of overweight in developing countries is associated with high socioeconomic status. Other reasons of the rapid increase of overweight in the developing countries caused by different environmental or genetic factors are discussed.
The present cross-sectional anthropometric study evaluates new approaches in preventing overweight in children. Anthropometric data were obtained in 289 German children (146 boys, 143 girls) aged 6-11 years and 41 20-29 year old German female students for describing the type of body shape by Metric-Index (thoracic breadth, thoracic depth, height). The data were correlated with 15 fat layers measured with a lipometer with Principal Component Analyses and ANOVA. In females the android respectively gynoid type of body shape was significantly associated with the pyknomorphic respectively leptomorphic type. The study demonstrates that this pattern is established by an age of 8 years, when the earliest maturing children start to enter puberty. This pattern can be used to check the individual's risk of overweight and to recommend preventive healthcare interventions.
Auxology has developed from mere describing child and adolescent growth into a vivid and interdisciplinary research area encompassing human biologists, physicians, social scientists, economists and biostatisticians. The meeting illustrated the diversity in auxology, with the various social, medical, biological and biostatistical aspects in studies on child growth and development.
Objective: The age of menarche is usually considered to be affected by nutritional, health-related, social, and economic factors and has significantly decreased since the mid-19th century. The present study was performed to investigate whether the timing of menarche paralleled the general acceleration of physical development, or whether this pattern differed.
Study Design: In all, 30 German studies on menarcheal age (n = > 200) since 1848 were collected. Frequency distributions were analyzed.
Results: During the second half of the 19th and the early 20th century, mean menarcheal age decreased from 18 to 12-13 years in Europe. Yet, the data fail to support the conventional hypothesis that menarcheal age mainly depends on nutritional, health, and economic factors.
Conclusions: We suggest that later than usual menarche may not necessarily be regarded as a physical illness, but in view of the apparently physiological delay of menarche in the 19th century, may be viewed as "collective social amenorrhea."
Target Audience: Obstetricians & Gynecologists and Family Physicians.
Learning Objectives: After participating in this CME activity, physicians should be better able to evaluate menarche as an indicator of developmental tempo in both historical and modern settings, compare menarche in healthy mid-19th century girls with menarche in average modern girls, and assess the marked sensitivity of full pubertal development to environmental circumstances.
Types of Body Shape
(2013)
The digital laser rangefinder GLM Professional (R) BOSCH 250 VF was tested as a modified preproduction model with regard to its applicability of quantifying humans' height. The aim of this investigation was to determine and evaluate the instrument's precision, as well as its manageability within anthropometric field studies. Data collected by the digital laser rangefinder did not show a significant difference to data of control by an anthropometer. Furthermore, more than 96% of the difference values are located within area of agreement. Nevertheless, the GLM Professional (R) is a highly sensitive instrument and mean SD within threefold data acquisition is twice as high as SD resulting from data collection by an anthropometer. However, due to the minimal percentage differences within data acquisition and compared to the standard method, the GLM Professional (R) is proved to be a reliable instrument and to be highly applicable for anthropometric field studies. Furthermore, due to its excellent manageability and compact size, the GLM Professional (R) shows a very good applicability even for less trained anthropometrists and thus ameliorates the possibilities of collecting reliable data within anthropometric field studies.
Objectives: Obesity and a reduced physical activity are global developments. Physical activity affects the external skeletal robustness which decreased in German children. It was assumed that the negative trend of decreased external skeletal robustness can be found in other countries. Therefore anthropometric data of Russian and German children from the years 2000 and 2010 were compared.
Methods: Russian (2000/2010 n = 1023/268) and German (2000/2010 n = 2103/1750) children aged 6-10 years were investigated. Height, BMI and external skeletal robustness (Frame-Index) were examined and compared for the years and the countries. Statistical analysis was performed by Mann-Whitney-Test.
Results: Comparison 2010 and 2000: In Russian children BMI was significantly higher; boys were significantly taller and exhibited a decreased Frame-Index (p = .002) in 2010. German boys showed significantly higher BMI in 2010. In both sexes Frame-Index (p = .001) was reduced in 2010. Comparison Russian and German children in 2000: BMI, height and Frame-Index were different between Russian and German children. German children were significantly taller but exhibited a lower Frame-Index (p<.001). Even German girls showed a significantly higher BMI. Comparison Russian and German children in 2010: BMI and Frame-Index were different. Russian children displayed a higher Frame-Index (p<.001) compared with Germans.
Conclusions: In Russian children BMI has increased in recent years. Frame-Index is still higher in Russian children compared with Germans however in Russian boys Frame-Index is reduced. This trend and the physical activity should be observed in the future.
The human face shows individual features and features that are characteristic for sex and age (the loss of childlike characteristics during maturation). The analysis of facial dimensions is essential for identifying individual features also for forensic issues.
The analysis of facial proportions was performed on photogrammetric data from front views of 125 children. The data were pooled from 2 different studies. The children's data were obtained from a longitudinal study and reduced by random generator to ensure the data of adults from a separate cross-sectional study.
We applied principal component analysis on photogrammetric facial proportions of 169 individuals: 125 children (63 boys and 62 girls) aged 2-7 years and 44 adults (18 men and 26 women) aged 18-65 years.
Facial proportions depend on age and sex. Three components described age: (1) proportions of facial height to head height, (2) proportions that involve endocanthal breadth, and (3) bigonial to bizygonial proportions. Proportions that associate with sex are connected with nasal distances and nasal to bizygonial distances.
Twenty-three percent of the variance, particularly variance that are connected with proportions of lower and middle face heights to head height, do neither depend on sex nor on age and thus appear useful for screening purposes, eg, for dysmorphic genetic syndromes.
Body composition
(2013)
Biological age
(2013)
Objectives Childhood obesity is a global problem, e.g., due to physical inactivity. External skeletal robustness (Frame-Index) has decreased in German schoolchildren. An association between Frame-Index and physical activity was assumed. Further often body mass index (BMI) is analyzed without reference to bone structure. Therefore, we analyze relationships between Frame-Index, BMI, % body fat, and physical activity. Methods In a cross-sectional study, 691 German children aged 610 years were investigated. BMI, % body fat, Frame-Index, total steps p.w., sports club rate p.w., training time p.d., and TV-time p.d. were determined. Results Total steps (P<0.001), BMI (P<0.001), and % body fat (P=0.024) are positively linked to Frame-Index. Total steps (P<0.001), sports club rate (P=0.001), and training time (P<0.001) are negatively associated with % body fat. Total steps (P=0.017) are negatively linked to BMI. TV-time is positively related to BMI (P<0.001) and % body fat (P<0.001). % Body fat is affected by age (P<0.001), sex (P=0.028), and total steps (P=0.002). BMI is influenced by age (P<0.001), and Frame-Index by sex (P<0.001) and total steps (P=0.029). Principal component analysis indicates an association between BMI and TV-time and Frame-Index and total steps. Conclusions We demonstrate an association between external skeletal robustness and physical activity, which is not captured by in BMI measurements. Children should be physically active in order to maintain skeletal robustness. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 25:404410, 2013.
Background: During the last 10 years, skeletal robustness in children has generally decreased. The reasons for this phenomenon, as well as its outcomes, are undetermined so far.
Aim: The present study explores the association between anthropometric skeletal measurements, bone quality measurements, and physical activity in young adults.
Subjects and Methods: 118 German young men (N=568; 19-25 years old) and women (N=550; 19-24 years old) were investigated by anthropometric methods (i. e., height, weight, shoulder, elbow breadth, and pelvic breadth) and quantitative ultrasound measurement (QUS). Strength and stability of Os calcis have been determined by speed of sound (in m/s) and broadband ultrasound attenuation (in dB/Mhz); individual physical activity was analyzed by a pedometer and by questionnaire.
Results: The results show a correlation between sports hours per week and bone quality index in males. But no correlation exists between anthropometric data and QUSs for either sexes, as well as no correlation between total steps per day and internal bone quality or external bone dimensions.
Conclusion: These results are discussed in the context of generally decreasing physical activity, the outcomes of prevention programs as well as evolutionary adaptation of human phenotypic plasticity in a changing environment.
Objectives: Modern human life style has led to significant decrease in everyday physical activity and bipedal locomotion. It has previously been shown that skeletal robustness (relative elbow breadth) is associated with daily step counts. The aim of the study was to investigate whether also other skeletal measures, particularly pelvic breadth may have changed in recent decades.
Methods: We re-analyzed elbow breadth, pelvic breadth (bicristal), and thoracic depth and breadth, of up to 28,975 healthy females and 28,288 healthy males aged 3-18 years from cross-sectional anthropological surveys performed between 1980 and 2012 by the Universities of Potsdam and Berlin, Germany.
Results: Relative elbow breadth (Frame index) significantly decreased in both sexes since 1980 (< 0.001). The trend toward slighter built was even more pronounced in absolute and relative pelvic breadth. In contrast, equivalent changes of parts of the skeletal system that are not involved in bipedal locomotion such as thoracic breadth, thoracic depth, and the thoracic index were absent.
Conclusions: The present investigation confirms the decline in relative elbow breadth in recent decades. Analogue, but even more pronounced changes were detected in pelvic breadth that coincides with the modern decline in upright locomotion. The findings underscore the phenotypic plasticity of humans while adapting to new environmental conditions. (C) 2014Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Aim Growth is both a matter of amplitude and tempo. We aimed to develop references for body height, body weight and body mass index (BMI) with respect to tempo of maturity. Methods Data obtained from the German KiGGS study (2003-2006) on body height, body weight and presence or absence of the menarche were re-analysed in 3776 girls, aged 10-17years. We developed smoothed centiles for BMI-, body-height- and body-weight-for-age using the LMS method for premenarcheal and postmenarcheal girls. Results Body height, body weight and BMI differed significantly between premenarcheal and postmenarcheal girls. On average, postmenarcheal girls aged 11-17years were 5.3cm taller and 9.7kg heavier, and their BMI was 2.9kg/m2 higher than in premenarcheal girls of the same calendar age. Conclusion Adolescent BMI rises with calendar age and biological age. New reference charts for adolescent girls aged 10-18years were generated to be inserted into the currently used references to avoid misclassifying underweight and overweight pubertal girls.
Prevention and anthropology
(2014)
Screening is an important issue in medicine and is used to early identify unrecognised diseases in persons who are apparently in good health. Screening strongly relies on the concept of "normal values". Normal values are defined as values that are frequently observed in a population and usually range within certain statistical limits. Screening for obesity should start early as the prevalence of obesity consolidates already at early school age. Though widely practiced, measuring BMI is not the ultimate solution for detecting obesity. Children with high BMI may be "robust" in skeletal dimensions. Assessing skeletal robustness and in particularly assessing developmental tempo in adolescents are also important issues in health screening.
Yet, in spite of the necessity of screening investigations, appropriate reference values are often missing. Meanwhile, new concepts of growth diagrams have been developed. Stage line diagrams are useful for tracking developmental processes over time. Functional data analyses have efficiently been used for analysing longitudinal growth in height and assessing the tempo of maturation. Convenient low-cost statistics have also been developed for generating synthetic national references.
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.
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.