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A hundred and twenty-five years ago, European infants grew differently from modern infants. We show weight gains of 20 healthy children weighed longitudinally from birth to age 1 year published by Camerer in 1882. The data illustrate the prevalent historic concepts of infant nutrition practiced by German civil servants, lawyers, merchants, university professors, physicians, foresters and farmers. Breastfeeding by the mother was not truly appreciated in those days; children were often breastfed by wet nurses or received bottled milk of various composition. Bottle feeding mainly consisted of diluted cow’s milk with some added carbohydrates without evidence that appropriate amounts of oil, butter or other fatty components had been added. French children from 1914 showed similar weight gain patterns suggesting similar feeding practices. The historical data suggest that energy deficient infant formula had regularly been fed in the late 19th and the early 20th century Europe regardless of wealth and social class. The data question current concerns that temporarily feeding energy deficient infant formula may warrant serious anxieties regarding long-term cognitive, social and emotional behavioral development.

Growth is a multifarious phenomenon that has been studied by nutritionists, economists, paediatric endocrinologists; archaeologists, child psychologists and other experts. Yet, a unifying theory of understanding growth regulation is still lacking.Critical review of the literature.We summarise evidence linking social competition and its effect on hierarchies in social structures, with the neuronal networks of the ventromedial hypothalamus and body size. The endocrine signalling system regulating growth hormone, Insulin-like-Growth-Factor1 and skeletal growth, is well conserved in the evolution of vertebrata for some 400 million years. The link between size and status permits adaptive plasticity, competitive growth and strategic growth adjustments also in humans. Humans perceive size as a signal of dominance with tallness being favoured and particularly prevalent in the upper social classes.Westernised societies are competitive. People are tall, and "open to change." Social values include striving for status and prestige implying socio-economic domination. We consider the transition of political and social values following revolutions and civil wars, as key elements that interact with the evolutionarily conserved neuroendocrine competence for adaptive developmental plasticity, overstimulate the hypothalamic growth regulation and finally lead to the recent historic increases in average height.

Background: Child growth is a dynamic process. When measured at short intervals, children’s growth shows characteristic patterns that can be of great importance for clinical purposes. Objective: To study whether measuring height on a daily basis using an APP is practicable and user-friendly. Methods: Recruitment took place via Snowball Sampling. Thirteen out of 14 contacted families signed up for a study period of 12 weeks with altogether 22 healthy children aged 3 to 13 years (response rate 93%). The study started with a visit to the family home for the setup of the measurement site, conventional height measuring and initial training of the new measurement process. Follow-up appointments were made at four, eight and 12 weeks. The children’s height was measured at daily intervals at their family homes over a period of three months. Results: The parents altogether recorded 1704 height measurements and meticulously documented practicability and problems when using the device. A 93% response rate in recruitment was achieved by maintaining a high motivation within the families. Contact with the principal investigator was permanently available, including open communication, personal training and attendance during the appointments at the family homes. Conclusion: Measuring height by photographic display is interesting for children and parents and can be used for height measurements at home. A positive response rate of 13 out of 14 families with altogether 22 children highlights feasible recruitment and the high convenience and user-friendliness of daily APP-supported height measurements. Daily APP measurements appear to be a promising new tool for longitudinal growth studies.

Seventeen scientists met for this year’s conference on Auxology held at Krobielowice castle, Poland, to discuss growth and public health concerns. The regulation of growth is complex and besides metabolic and endocrine components including hypothalamic releasing factors, growth hormone and multiple downstream effectors, comprises the full spectrum of the psychosocial, economic and emotional environment including signaling dominance, competence, prestige, or subordination and indulgence, all of this being sensitive to urban or rural lifestyle, the political climate and with marked plasticity throughout history. New statistical techniques (St. Nicolas House Analysis) are presented for analyzing anthropometric variables for public health concerns. The impact of spatial differences on developmental tempo, growth in height, and the prevalence of childhood obesity are discussed as well as the impact of social mobility on obesity, and the benefits of the biopsychosocial status when getting along with socio-economic disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Critical cut-off values of BMI-for-age z-scores (BAZ) are used to define “thinness”, “overweight” and “obesity”, but the validity of these cut-off values needs to be questioned in populations that are shorter or taller than the reference. We hypothesized that the prevalence of thinness, overweight, and obesity depends on population height and performed a random simulation. Methods: We created virtual child populations aged 2-10 years with normally distributed height expressed as height-for-age z-scores (HAZ) and weight expressed as weight-for-age z-score (WAZ), based on WHO growth standards and references, with a correlation r=0.7 between height and weight. We adjusted weight-for-height and calculated BAZ. Results: BAZ depends on height and age. In short children (mean HAZ=-2 to HAZ=-3), the prevalence of thinness falls to less than 1% in the youngest and rises up to 10% (mean HAZ=-2) and up to 13% (mean HAZ=-3) at age 10 years. The prevalence of obesity rises to up to 7% in the shortest and youngest and falls close to zero at age 10. Short young children and tall older children are more prone to be misclassified as overweight. Conclusions: The prevalence of thinness, overweight and obesity depends on height and age. The coexistence of being short and being overweight – currently referred to as “double burden of malnutrition” – needs consideration as to what extent this condition is a health issue or reflects calculation artefacts. The arithmetic dilemma particularly affects young children in short populations. We suggest abstaining from defining “thinness”, “overweight”, or “obesity” by BMI z-scores. Different states of under- and malnutrition should rather be classified by direct or indirect measures of body fat.

Students learn by repetition. Repetition is essential, but repetition needs questioning, and questioning the repertoire belongs to the essential tasks of student education. Guiding students to questioning was and is our prime motive to offer our International Student Summer Schools. The data were critically discussed among the students, in the twilight of Just So Stories, common knowledge, and prompted questioning of contemporary solutions. For these schools, the students bring their own data, carry their preliminary concepts, and in group discussions, they may have to challenge these concepts. Catch-up growth is known to affect long bone growth, but different opinions exist to what extent it also affects body proportions. Skeletal age and dental development are considered appropriate measures of maturation, but it appears that both system develop independently and are regulated by different mechanisms. Body weight distributions are assumed to be skewed, yet, historic data disproved this assumption. Many discussions focused on current ideas of global growth standards as a common yardstick for all populations world-wide, with new statistical tools being developed including network reconstruction and evaluation of the reconstructs to determine the confidence of graph prediction methods.

Abstract Despite optimized nutrition, preterm-born infants grow slowly and tend to over-accrete body fat. We hypothesize that the premature dissociation of the maternal–placental–fetal unit disrupts the maintenance of physiological endocrine function in the fetus, which has severe consequences for postnatal development. This review highlights the endocrine interactions of the maternal–placental–fetal unit and the early perinatal period in both preterm and term infants. We report on hormonal levels (including tissue, thyroid, adrenal, pancreatic, pituitary, and placental hormones) and nutritional supply and their impact on infant body composition. The data suggest that the premature dissociation of the maternal–placental–fetal unit leads to a clinical picture similar to panhypopituitarism. Further, we describe how the premature withdrawal of the maternal–placental unit, neonatal morbidities, and perinatal stress can cause differences in the levels of growth-promoting hormones, particularly insulin-like growth factors (IGF). In combination with the endocrine disruption that occurs following dissociation of the maternal–placental–fetal unit, the premature adaptation to the extrauterine environment leads to early and fast accretion of fat mass in an immature body. In addition, we report on interventional studies that have aimed to compensate for hormonal deficiencies in infants born preterm through IGF therapy, resulting in improved neonatal morbidity and growth. Impact Preterm birth prematurely dissociates the maternal–placental–fetal unit and disrupts the metabolic-endocrine maintenance of the immature fetus with serious consequences for growth, body composition, and neonatal outcomes. The preterm metabolic-endocrine disruption induces symptoms resembling anterior pituitary failure (panhypopituitarism) with low levels of IGF-1, excessive postnatal fat mass accretion, poor longitudinal growth, and failure to thrive. Appropriate gestational age-adapted nutrition alone seems insufficient for the achievement of optimal growth of preterm infants. Preliminary results from interventional studies show promising effects of early IGF-1 supplementation on postnatal development and neonatal outcomes.

Carl Bergmann was an astute naturalist and physiologist. His ideas about animal size and shape were important advances in the pre-Darwinian nineteenth century. Bergmann’s rule claims that that in cold climates, large body mass increases the ratio of volume-to-surface area and provides for maximum metabolic heat retention in mammals and birds. Conversely, in warmer temperatures, smaller body mass increases surface area relative to volume and allows for greater heat loss. For humans, we now know that body size and shape are regulated more by social-economic-political-emotional (SEPE) factors as well as nutrition-infection interactions. Temperature has virtually no effect. Bergmann’s rule is a “just-so” story and should be relegated to teaching and scholarship about the history of science. That “rule” is no longer acceptable science and has nothing to tell us about physiological anthropology.

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.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate long-term stimulant treatment associations on standardized height, weight and BMI trajectories from childhood to adulthood in the Multimodal Treatment Study of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (MTA). METHOD: Of 579 children with DSM-IV ADHD-Combined Type at baseline (ages 7.0–9.9 years) and 289 classmates (local normative comparison group, LNCG), 568 and 258 respectively, were assessed 8 times over 16 years (final mean age = 24.7). Parent interview data established subgroups with self-selected Consistent (N=53, 9%), Inconsistent (N=374, 66%), and Negligible (N=141, 25%) stimulant medication use, as well as cases starting stimulants prior to MTA entry (N=211, 39%). Height and weight growth trajectories were calculated for each subgroup. RESULTS: Height z-scores trajectories differed among subgroups (F=2.22, P

Background Members of the same social group tent to have the same body height. Migrants tend to adjust in height to their host communities. Objectives Social-Economic-Political-Emotional (SEPE) factors influence growth. We hypothesized that Vietnamese young adult migrants in Germany (1) are taller than their parents, (2) are as tall as their German peers, and (3) are as tall as predicted by height expectation at age 13 years. Sample and Methods The study was conducted in 30 male and 54 female Vietnamese migrants (mean age 26.23 years. SD=4.96) in Germany in 2020. Information on age, sex, body height, school and education, job, height and ethnicity of best friend, migration history and cultural identification, parental height and education, and recalled information on their personal height expectations at age 13 years were obtained by questionnaire. The data were analyzed by St. Nicolas House Analysis (SNHA) and multiple regression. Results Vietnamese young adults are taller than their parents (females 3.85cm, males 7.44cm), but do not fully attain height of their German peers. The body height is positively associated with the height of best friend (p < 0.001), the height expectation at age 13 year (p < 0.001), and father height (p=0.001). Conclusion Body height of Vietnamese migrants in Germany reflects competitive growth and strategic growth adjustments. The magnitude of this intergenerational trend supports the concept that human growth depends on Social-Economic-Political-Emotional (SEPE) factors.

Human size changes over time with worldwide secular trends in height, weight, and body mass index (BMI). There is general agreement to relate the state of nutrition to height and weight, and to ratios of weight-to-height. The BMI is a ratio. It is commonly used to classify underweight, overweight and obesity in adults. Yet, the BMI is inappropriate to provide any immediate information on body composition. It is accepted that the BMI is “a simple index to classify underweight, overweight and obesity in adults”. It is stated that “policies, programmes and investments need to be “nutrition-sensitive”, which means they must have positive impacts on nutrition”. It is also stated that “a need for policies that address all forms of malnutrition by making healthy foods accessible and affordable, while restricting unhealthy foods through fiscal and regulatory restrictions“. But these statements are neither warranted by arithmetic considerations, nor by historic evidence. Measuring the BMI is an appropriate screening tool for detecting an unusual weight-to-height ratio, but the BMI is an inappropriate tool for estimating body composition, or suggesting medical and health policy decisions.

Twenty-one scientists met for this year’s virtual conference on Auxology held at the University Potsdam, Germany, to discuss child and adolescent growth during times of fear and emotional stress. Growth within the broad range of normal for age and sex is considered a sign of good general health whereas fear and emotional stress can lead to growth faltering. Stunting is a sign of social disadvantage and poor parental education. Adverse childhood experiences affect child development, particularly in families with low parental education and low socioeconomic status. Negative effects were also shown in Indian children exposed prenatally and in early postnatal life to the cyclone Aila in 2009. Distrust, fears and fake news regarding the current Corona pandemic received particular attention though the effects generally appeared weak. Mean birth weight was higher; rates of low, very and extremely low birth weight were lower. Other topics discussed by the participants, were the influences of economic crises on birth weight, the measurement of self-confidence and its impact on growth, the associations between obesity, peer relationship, and behavior among Turkish adolescents, height trends in Indonesia, physiological neonatal weight loss, methods for assessing biological maturation in sportsmen, and a new method for skeletal age determination. The participants also discussed the association between acute myocardial infarction and somatotype in Estonia, rural-urban growth differences in Mongolian children, socio-environmental conditions and sexual dimorphism, biological mortality bias, and new statistical techniques for describing inhomogeneity in the association of bivariate variables, and for detecting and visualizing extensive interactions among variables.

OBJECTIVES Human body height differs within a wide range and has conventionally been associated with genetic, nutritional, and environmental conditions. In this study, we try to broaden this perspective and add the evolutionary aspect of height differences. SAMPLE AND METHOD We revisited height from archeological data (10 000-1000 BC), and historical growth studies (1877-1913). We analyzed height, weight, and skinfold thickness of 1666 Indonesian schoolchildren from six representative rural and urban elementary schools in Bali and West Timor with a stunting prevalence of up to 50%. RESULTS Stature in the Holocene prehistory of the Near East and Europe varied with maxima for women usually ranging below 160 cm, and maxima for men between 165 and 170 cm. Stature never rose above 170 cm. European and white US-American schoolchildren of the 19th and 20th century were generally short with average height ranging between -1.5 and -2.2 hSDS, yet in the absence of any evidence of chronic or recurrent undernutrition or frequent illness, poverty, or disadvantageous living conditions. The same is found in contemporary Indonesian schoolchildren. CONCLUSION Stunting is frequently observed not only in the poor, but also in affluent and well-nourished social strata last 10 000 years. Only in very recent history, and only in a few democratic, modern societies, stature has increased beyond the long-lasting historic height average. Viewed from an evolutionary perspective, and considering adaptive plasticity of and community effects on growth, competitive growth and strategic growth adjustments, stunting appears to be the natural condition of human height.

Background Subjective Social Status is used as an important predictor for psychological and physiological findings, most commonly measured with the MacArthur Scale (Ladder Test). Previous studies have shown that this test fits better in Western cultures. The idea of a social ladder itself and ranking oneself “higher” or “lower” is a concept that accords to the Western thinking. Objectives We hypothesize that in a culture where only the elites have adapted to a Western lifestyle, the test results reflect a higher level of accuracy for this stratum. We also expect that self-perception differs per sex. Sample and Methods We implemented the Ladder Test in a study of Indonesian schoolchildren aged between 5 and 13 years (boys N = 369, girls N= 364) from non-private and private schools in Kupang in 2020. Results Our analysis showed that the Ladder Test results were according to the Western expectations only for the private school, as the Ladder Scores significantly decreased with age (LM: p = 0.04). The Ladder Test results are best explained by “Education Father” for the non-private school pupils (p = 0.01) and all boys (p = 0.04), by “School Grades” for the private school cohort (p = 0.06) and by “Household Score” for girls (p =0.09). Conclusion This finding indicates that the concept of ranking oneself “high” or “low” on a social ladder is strongly implicated with Western ideas. A ladder implies social movement by “climbing” up or down. According to that, reflection of self-perception is influenced by culture.

Background: We investigated average body height in the central provinces of the Russian empire in the middle of XIX century in view of the concept of "community effects on height". We analyzed body height correlations between neighboring districts at this time. We added information about secular changes in body height during the 19th century of this territory. Material and methods: The study used height data of conscripts, which were born in the years 1853-1863, and age 21 at the time of measurement. The territory of seven provinces was considered as a network with 105 nodes, each node representing one district with information on average male body height. In order to define neighboring districts three different approaches were used: based on the "common borders" method, based on Euclidean distances (from 60 to 120 km), based on real road connections. Results: Small but significant correlation coefficients were observed between 1st order districts in the network based on Euclidean distance of 100 km (r = 0.256, p-value = 0.006) and based on "the common borders" approach (r = 0.25, p-value = 0.02). Wherein no significant correlations were observed in the network based on road connections and between second order neighbors regardless of the method. Conclusion: Height correlation coefficients between 1st order neighboring districts observed in the Russian districts were very similar to values observed in the Polish study (r = 0.24). The considered Russian territory and the territory of Poland have a lot in common. They consist of both plains without mountains. In contradistinction to Poland the transport infrastructure in Russia was weakly developed in the middle of XIX century. In addition, the mobility of people was limited by serfdom. In this context the absent of significant correlation of second order neighbors can be explained by low population density and lack of migration and communication between the districts.

Background: Multiple linear correlations between parameters can be shown in correlation matrices. Correlations can be ranked, but can also be visualized in network graphs. Yet, translating a correlation matrix into a network graph is not trivial. In view of a popular child game, we propose to name this method St. Nicolas House Analysis. Material and methods: We present a new method (St. Nicolas House Analysis) that helps translating correlation matrices into network graphs. The performance of this and other network reconstruction methods was tested in randomly created virtual scale-free networks, networks consisting of bands or hubs, using balanced classification rate and the F1-Score for correctly predicting existing and non-existing edges. Thereafter we analyzed anthropometric data and information on parental education, obtained from an anthropometric survey in 908 Indonesian boys and 808 Indonesian girls. Seven parameters were analyzed: child height standard deviation score (hSDS), child BMI standard deviation scores (BMI_SDS), mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC), mean thickness of subscapular and triceps skinfold (mean SF), and elbow breadth; as well as maternal and paternal education (years of schooling). The parameters were considered as the nodes of the network; the edges represent the correlations between the nodes. Results: Performance measures, balanced classification rate and the F1-score, showed that St. Nicolas' House Analysis was superior to methods using sophisticated correlation value thresholds and methods based on partial correlations for analyzing bands and hubs. We applied this method also in an Indonesia data set. Ranking correlations showed the direct association between parental education and child growth. Conclusion: St. Nicolas House Analysis confirmed that growth of Indonesian school children directly depends on maternal education, with no evidence that this effect is mediated by the state of nutrition.

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Noch immer gründen heutige Analysen genetischer Zwillings- und Familienstudien auf mathematischen Ansätzen des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts, namentlich von Galton, Pearson und Fisher, und führen zu konventionellen Schätzwerten für die Heritabilität der Körperhöhe zwischen h² = 0,87 und h² = 0,93 bei Männern und zwischen h² = 0,68 und h² = 0,84 bei Frauen. Diese Werte sind wesentlich höher als moderne Schätzungen auf der Basis genomweiter Assoziationsstudien (GWAS), mit denen sich zwischen 12,3 % und 49 % der Körperhöhenvarianz im Erwachsenenalter erklären lassen. Diese so genannte „missing heritability“ gibt Anlass zu Missverständnissen. Diskussion Wir nehmen eine biokulturelle Perspektive ein, um Entwicklungsmerkmale zu verstehen, die nur auf den ersten Blick erblich erscheinen. Innerhalb sozialer Gruppen dient Körpergröße als Signal. Kompetitive Wachstumsstrategien (competitive growth strategies) und strategische Wachstumsanpassungen (strategic growth adjustments) insbesondere im Hinblick auf die Gefahr, aus einer führenden sozialen Rolle verdrängt zu werden (threat of being displaced) sind bei sozialen Säugern beschrieben und spielen sehr wahrscheinlich auch in menschlichen Sozialstrukturen eine wesentliche Rolle. Die Körperhöhe eines Menschen hängt von der Körperhöhe anderer Mitglieder seiner Peer Group ab. Im vergangenen Jahrhundert wurden Körperhöhentrends von bis zu 20 cm in manchen Populationen beobachtet (säkulare Trends). Dies ist Ausdruck von phänotypischer Plastizität und war Galton, Pearson und Fisher unbekannt. Schlussfolgerung Die beschriebene „missing heritability“ für Körperhöhe spiegelt die Diskrepanz zwischen moderner Wissenschaft und überholten Vermengungen von deterministischen und politischen Ideen des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts wider.

Body height has a signaling function among social mammals. Humans also perceive physical size as a signal and tend to associate stature and status. Taller men are perceived as more competent and authoritative. Studies in wild Kalahari male meerkats (Suricata suricatta) suggest that dominance itself can be a stimulus for growth allowing for competitive growth and strategic growth adjustments. Assuming that similar mechanisms on the control of growth are also relevant for humans, our understanding of the shortness of many Third World populations has to be revised. Short stature may no longer be exclusively understood as an expression of poverty, chronic malnutrition and poor health but as an expression of persistent feelings of inferiority and patronization in the face of the global spread and dominance of Western life and moral codes.

Socially, economically, politically and emotionally (SEPE) disadvantaged children are shorter than children from affluent background. In view of previous work on the lack of association between nutrition and child growth, we performed a study in urban schoolchildren. We measured 723 children (5.83 to 13.83 years), Kupang, Indonesia, three schools with different social background. We investigated anthropometric data, clinical signs of malnutrition, physical fitness, parental education, and household equipment. Subjective self-confidence was assessed by the MacArthur test. The prevalence of stunting was between 8.5% and 46.8%. Clinical signs of under- or malnutrition were absent even in the most underprivileged children. There was no delay in tooth eruption. Underprivileged children are physically fitter than the wealthy. The correlation between height and state of nutrition (BMI_SDS, skinfold_SDS, MUAC_SDS) ranged between r = 0.69 (p &lt, 0.01) and r = 0.43 (p &lt, 0.01) in private school children, and between r = 0.07 (ns) and r = 0.32 (p &lt, 0.01) in the underprivileged children. Maternal education interacted with height in affluent (r = 0.20, p &lt, 0.01) and in underprivileged children (r = 0.20, p &lt, 0.01). The shortness of SEPE disadvantaged children was not associated with anthropometric and clinical signs of malnutrition, nor with delay in physical development. Stunting is a complex phenomenon and may be considered a synonym of social disadvantage and poor parental education.

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.

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.

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.

Background: Since the 19th century, sexual dimorphism has been known to be sensitive to adverse environmental conditions. Migrants are sensitive to economic and political affluence, and tend to adjust in height towards height of their hosts. We aim to study growth, sexual dimorphism, and height of native and migrant children in three primary schools in Nabire, Papua, Indonesia. Material and Methods 1: Cross-sectional data on height were obtained from 186 children (59 and 56 native Papuan girls and boys, respectively; 38 and 33 trans-migrant girls and boys respectively; who are aged 7.0-7.7 (mean 7.45) years from three primary schools in Nabire, Papua, Indonesia. The Indonesian National Growth Charts were used as references for height. Results 1: With 118.4 cm (SD 6.7) cm, trans-migrant 7-year old boys were almost 3 cm taller compared to their native-age-matched-peers (115.7 cm (5.0 SD) cm, p < 0.05). The case was different among the girls. Trans-migrant girls were not significantly taller than native girls. Material and Method 2: We re-analyzed the height data from over 300,000 infants, children and adolescents, age 0-18 year, from 34 Indonesian provinces. The data were obtained from the latest Indonesian 2013 National Basic Health Survey (NHBS), and have previously been used to construct National Indonesian Growth Charts. St. Nicolas House Analysis was used to translate correlation matrices into network graphs and visualizing chains of associations between parameters that were multiply correlated. Results 2: St. Nicolas House Analysis suggested that the growth of male sex were more sensitive to population crowding, and that crowding contributes to the greater height dimorphism in taller populations. Conclusion: Economic prosperity and increased population density stimulate male adult height to a greater extent than female adult height, and increase the sexual dimorphism in height among the tall populations of densely populated wealthy countries.

Editorial Perceiving stunting - student research and the "Lieschen Mueller effect" in nutrition science

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.

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.

BACKGROUND: Under normal nutritional and health conditions, body height, weight and head circumference are significantly related. We hypothesize that the apparent general association between weight, height, and head circumference of the growing child might be misleading. METHODS: We reanalyzed data of 7,444 boys and 7,375 girls measured in East-Germany between 1986 and 1990, aged from 0 to 7 y with measurements of body length/height, leg length, sitting height, biacromial shoulder breadth, thoracic breadth, thoracic depth, thoracic circumference, body weight, head volume, percentage of body fat, and hip skinfold vertical, using principal component analysis. RESULTS: Strong associations exist between skeletal growth, fat accumulation, and head volume increments. Yet in spite of this general proportionality, skeletal growth, fat acquisition, and head growth exhibit different patterns. Three components explain between almost 60% and more than 75% of cumulative variance between birth and age 7 y. Parameters of skeletal growth predominantly load on the first component and clearly separate from indicators of fat deposition. After age of 2 y, head volume loads on a separate third component in both sexes indicating independence of head growth. CONCLUSION: Under appropriate nutritional and health circumstances, nutritional status, body size, and head circumference are not related.

Growth within the broad range of normal for age, sex and ethnicity is considered a good sign of general health and of proper living conditions. Starvation, emotional deprivation and chronic, particularly endocrine and inflammatory, diseases, impair growth; persistence of such conditions leads to stunting—long-term preventing from growing, resulting in short stature—and will raise the susceptibility to further illness and mortality. Detailed scientific observations exemplifying the close link between nutrition, living conditions, health and growth date back to the medical literature of the end 19th and early 20th centuries. Multiple observations of school physicians and paediatricians specify the impact of starvation and neglect on child growth during and after World War I,1 and recognise the significance of catch-up growth during refeeding. Catch-up growth is not limited to refeeding but systematically occurs in children whenever relieved from growth-inhibiting conditions. In 1906, Igl2 published growth patterns of Austrian boarding school children aged 7–17 years, who almost completely failed to grow during the regular school year but caught up in height during the 2 months of summer holiday at home. Mortality statistics in European orphanages since the 18th century highlight the importance of emotional care on infant survival. Scientific observations on emotional deprivation and its effect on infant and child growth became prevalent in the 20th century. Shortly after World War II, Widdowson3 investigated children in two German orphanages. Her concern with the growth of the children led her to a feeding experiment in one—to supplement the barely adequate caloric intake with additional bread and jam. This was based on …

Aim: Influence of nutrition in human growth failure, especially stunting, is a well-accepted idea. The present study assesses the influence of nutrition and non-nutritional factors on height growth in a short stature population. Material and methods: The present study was conducted among the children and adolescents of Sikkim, India. The sample size was 538 (boys and girls) of age 2-18 years. The anthropometric indices mid upper arm circumference-for-age Z-scores (MUACZ) and BMI-for-age Z-scores (BAZ) were utilised as proxy of nutritional status and growth was assessed using height-for-age Z-scores (HAZ). Associations were assessed using correlation, St. Nicolas house analysis (SNHA), principal component analysis (PCA) and regression. Results: Nutritional status of the participating children and adolescents as assessed by MUACZ and BAZ were largely normal. Despite variation in HAZ from -4 to +2 there was no influence of the nutritional indices on height. Further, there was clear lack of association between HAZ and socio-economic variables in the present study. Conclusion: The findings of the present study suggest nutrition is not the primary regulator of human growth. The possible influence of community effects on height is discussed.

Background: We define migrants as people who move from their place of birth to a new place of residence. Migration usually is directed by "Push-Pull" factors, for example to escape from poor living conditions or to find more prosperous socio-economic conditions. Migrant children tend to assimilate quickly, and soon perceive themselves as peers within their new social networks. Differences exist between growth of first generation and second generation migrants. Methods: We review body heights and height distributions of historic and modern migrant populations to test two hypotheses: 1) that migrant and adopted children coming from lower social status localities to higher status localities adjust their height growth toward the mean of the dominant recipient social network, and 2) social dominant colonial and military migrants display growth that significantly surpasses the median height of both the conquered population and the population of origin. Our analytical framework also considered social networks. Recent publications indicate that spatial connectedness (community effects) and social competitiveness can affect human growth. Results: Migrant children and adolescents of lower social status rapidly adjust in height towards average height of their hosts, but tend to mature earlier, and are prone to overweight. The mean height of colonial/military migrants does surpass that of the conquered and origin population. Conclusion: Observations on human social networks, non-human animal strategic growth adjustments, and competitive growth processes strengthen the concept of social connectedness being involved in the regulation of human migrant growth.

Growth is volatile and non-linear. Assessing the instantaneous speed of growth (momentary height velocity) depends on the precision and the number of measurements and the duration of the observation period. Measurements at short intervals reflect both the non-linearity of growth and the technical error of measurements (TEM).We reanalyzed longitudinal measurements of body length at age 0, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months, 18 months, and 24 months, from 1879 healthy infants (956 girls, 923 boys) from France (180 girls, 173 boys), Vilnius, Lithuania (507 girls, 507 boys), Lublin, Poland (67 girls, 56 boys), Zürich, Switzerland (94 girls, 102 boys) and Spain (108 girls, 95 boys); and longitudinal measurements of annual body height from age 2 to 18 years from 1528 healthy children and adolescents (774 girls, 754 boys) from France (41 girls, 47 boys), Vilnius, Lithuania (23 girls, 27 boys), Lublin, Poland (70 girls, 58 boys), Zürich, Switzerland (111 girls, 120 boys), Spain (94 girls, 74 boys), the Czech Republic (65 girls, 69 boys), Hungary (316 girls, 320 boys), and Berkeley, USA (54 girls, 39 boys).We calculated age - and sex-specific mean values for height and SD for height separately for each country. In addition, we defined the instantaneous speed of growth by the difference of two measures of hSDS Formulas References A1 , or in the case of multiple measurements, by the slope of the linear regression (βhSDS(t)). Based on the longitudinal measurements of body length, we present reference values for annual growth velocity given in the form of SD of annual hSDS changes (ΔhSDS), from birth to maturity. Correction factors are added for validating measurements obtained at intervals of less than one year. The correction factors depend on number of measurements, and duration of the observation period.

There are no new national growth references for the Romanian population and the current recommendations for short stature evaluation is the use of the Swiss growth charts developed based on a longitudinal study. The aim of the present paper is to present the new synthetic growth references for Romanian children. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We used local Romanian data from 9 studies with information on height and weight obtained between 1999 and 2016. Based on their plausibility and methodology six studies were selected for generating the National Synthetic Growth References for Romanian Children based on the specific methodology described previously. The selected studies included 8407 subjects measured in schools/kindergartens. Age is reported in years covering a range from 3-18 years. Height and weight were measured at a precision of 0.1 cm and 0.1 kg. All children were measured at normal temperature, in light clothes, without footwear. RESULTS: We present the charts and tables with the common centiles for height, weight and body mass index for boys and girls. CONCLUSION: We suggest synthetic growth references based upon recent growth data from 6 different Romanian regions as new National Growth Charts for Romanian children.

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.

AIM We aimed to develop the first references for body height, body weight and body mass index (BMI) for boys based on the individual developmental tempo with respect to their voice break status. METHODS We re-analysed data from the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS study) on body height, body weight and body mass index based on the voice break, or mutation, in 3956 boys aged 10-17 years. We used the LMS method to construct smoothed references centiles for the studied variables in premutational, mutational and postmutational boys. RESULTS Body height, body weight and BMI differed significantly (p < 0.001) between the different stages of voice break. On average, boys were 5.9 cm taller, 5.8 kg heavier and had a 0.7 kg/m² higher BMI with every higher stage of voice break. Currently used growth references for chronological age in comparison with maturity-related references led to an average of 5.4% of boys being falsely classified as overweight. CONCLUSION These newly developed growth references allowed convenient classifications of underweight and overweight or obese boys with respect to their voice break status. They should be added to currently used references centiles for the body mass index to avoid misclassifying boys' weight.

Objectives The association between body height and social status is known. We were interested in the effect of intergeneration changes in social status on height. Methods Body height was measured in 2008 paternal grandfather-father-son and 1803 paternal grandfather-father-daughter triplets. The sample consisted of four child cohorts born in 1988, 1985, 1983, and 1980, and was measured annually from 6 to 11, 9 to 14, 11 to 16, and 14 to 18 years of age. Triplets were dichotomized according to grandfathers' occupation, into one "lower" and one "upper" grandparental class; and according to paternal education, into one "lower" and "upper" paternal class, resulting in four "family histories": two nonmobile (grandfathers and fathers stayed in the same social class), and two mobile histories (social class of fathers and grandfathers differed). Results "Upper" class fathers are taller than "lower" class fathers. This class effect on height persists into the third generation. Upward social mobility ("lower" class fathers receive secondary or university education) results in taller stature both in the fathers and in the children. The opposite applies for downward social mobility. "Upper" class fathers with only basic or vocational education lose the social advantage and remain shorter. So do their children. Conclusions The class effect on height tends to persist into the next generation, but depends on education. Upward social mobility measured as a "better" education, results in taller stature, up to the third generation. The study highlights the importance of education as a major regulator of body height.

In view of the ongoing debate on “chronic malnutrition” and the concept of “stunting” as “a better measure than underweight of the cumulative effects of undernutrition and infection (WHO)”, we translate, briefly comment and re-publish three seminal historic papers on catch-up growth following re-feeding after severe food restriction of German children during and after World War I. The observations were published in 1920 and 1922, and appear to be of particular interest to the modern nutritionist. The papers of Abderhalden (1920) and Bloch (1920) describe German children of all social strata who were born shortly before World War I, and raised in apparently “normal” families. After severe long-standing undernutrition, they participated in an international charity program. They experienced exceptional catch-up growth in height of 3–5 cm within 6–8 weeks. Goldstein (1922) observed 512 orphans and children from underprivileged families. Goldstein described very different growth patterns. These children were much shorter (mean height between −2.0 and −2.8 SDS, modern WHO reference). They mostly failed to catch-up in height, but tended to excessively increase in weight particularly during adolescence. Whereas Abderhalden and Bloch illustrate rapid height catch-up in children from intact social background, Goldstein’s observations in orphans and children from poor social background parallel the growth patterns observed in children of modern middle and low-income countries. The historic observations question the current concept of stunting as prima facie evidence of malnutrition and chronic infection, and support the view that “the child’s longitudinal growth is largely independent of the extent and nature of the diet”.

Twenty-two scientists met at Krobielowice, Poland, to discuss the impact of the social environment, spatial proximity, migration, poverty, but also psychological factors such as body perception and satisfaction, and social stressors such as elite sports, and teenage pregnancies, on child and adolescent growth. The data analysis included linear mixed effects models with different random effects, Monte Carlo analyses, and network simulations. The work stressed the importance of the peer group, but also included historic material, some considerations about body proportions, and growth in chronic liver, and congenital heart disease.