BONN, Germany, Jun 22, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Children in Germany are taller
than they were 30 years ago, but the height increase observed during the last
century has become slower, researchers said.
The study, published in Deutsches Arzteblatt International, found the rate of
growth during childhood in Germany has increased, but the trend is less marked
after puberty.
Bettina Gohlke and Joachim Woelfle of the University of Bonn said that 7- to
10-year-olds were 1 cm to 1.5 cm taller -- about three-quarters of an inch --
than in the 1970s, whereas length at birth only slightly increased between 1984
and 1997, by 0.2 cm.
The researchers also found that there has been little change in physical
maturation. Therefore, the age of a young women's first menstruation has
remained constant at about 13 years since the early 1960s.
The correlation between growth and socioeconomic status has been well
established. For this reason, body growth is accepted as an important indicator
of the socioeconomic conditions of a society.
However, the biological mechanism through which this acts is still unknown.
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