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Research indicates that there is a strong link between an individual's height and upward social mobility, creating a genetic propensity for tallness among those in higher social classes. Studies included paternal and maternal education, occupational status, and urban and rural residence localities.

Education and marital status have a significant impact on premature mortality in both men and women. A study of people in three urban centers in Poland found that premature mortality rates were highest in unmarried men with little formal education. Although this was also true in women, the effect was greater in men. This was true at all ages and in all three populations.

A 1998 study of age-, sex- and maturity-associated variation in subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) in a sample of 390 Polish youth showed changes in body fat distribution are influenced by the timing of the adolescent growth spurt. During adolescence, boys indicate a proportionally greater accumulation of trunk SAT than girls.

Several studies are conducted to explain the existing differences between the adult migrants and the natives of Wroclaw, Poland. The migrants are found to have better health than the nonmigrants, with respect to the measured blood pressure, heart rate, weight, height and measures of fatness.

The changes in educational group specific mortality rates among urban adults in Poland are examined. It is revealed that a regular educational gradient in mortality persisted in each 10 year age group throughout the period covered.

Based on information provided at a follow-up interview at age 27 of male participants in the Wroclaw Growth Study. 16 of 176 males (9.1%) were identified as regularly active in sport during childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. The Wroclaw Growth Study followed a large cohort of boys and girls from ages 8 through 18. Complete growth and maturation records from ages 8 through 18 were available for 13 of the 16 active boys. Mean ages at attaining several indicators of somatic, skeletal, and sexual maturity were generally earlier in the active boys. This would suggest that the sample of boys who were active in sport were advanced in biological maturation. The advanced maturity status of the active boys was also apparent. In greater stature, weight, and biacromial breadth, especially during the pubertal years, while bicristal breadth and skinfolds did not differ from the longitudinal series. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Body mass index research shows linear increase with age for women but a two-stage process for men. In the latter case, there is an intensive rise from 20 to 40, then a significantly slower increase between 40 and 60 years.

Variation in the body mass index (BMI) among occupationally active inhabitants of one Polish urban center was studied by means of a three-factor ANOVA. The material is cross-sectional and comprises 32,750 men and women aged 22-60 years, examined in five successive surveys between 1983-1999. The factors considered in each sex were: 1) age category, 2) year of examination, and 3) social class. The increase of BMI with age is markedly greater among women than among men. No sustained intergeneration trend towards increased BMI was detectable in either sex. The BMI means rise regularly with decreasing position on the social scale in both sexes, but this effect is much more dramatic in women. The latter finding suggests that the condition of being situated low on the social scale is conducive to growth of fatness with age, markedly more so in women than in men. The absence of a secular trend in BMI means during the period considered contrasts with results reported for a number of other countries. This finding is intriguing, because Poland underwent abrupt and profound socio-economic transformation in the early 1990s. Am J Phys Anthropol 116:166-170, 2001. KEY WORDS body mass index; social class; secular trend; sex differences

The article discusses the intensity of feedbacks between physical and cultural evolution. The feedback mechanisms which constituted the driving force of the process of hominization have evolved. The habits and hunting of carnivorous caused changes in the pattern of social organization of the early hominid hord and psychological adaptations to killing. According to the author, it is difficult to speculate on the changes of intensity of the interdependence between culture and the phenomenon of developmental retardation. The evolution of culture and evolution of brain is interdependent.

The article discusses the about the fallaciousness of the concept of racial types and the damage done to human raciology by "typological thinking." Race is defined by modern evolutionary theory as a breeding population or a group of related populations .Some typologists considered race which coincide with ethic groups as an alleged mark of obsoleteness of the populationist approach. Migrations and mixture blurred boundaries between human populations in many areas. According to the author, there is no ground to reject the concept of racial element s a priori.

The article discusses the process of raciation which is brought about by the operation of the same genetic mechanism which is responsible for organic evolution in general. The emergence of reproductive isolation between two or more segments of a breeding population is important for the process of raciation to set in. The selective value of a particular character in a given environment, the amount of genetic variability available for selection, breeding size of the population, patterns of mating are the determining factors of the degree of racial divergence.