On average, black American women are getting shorter. That's the
conclusion reached by John Komlos, an economist who researches the
relationship between standards of living and human health and body
size. His study, which has not yet been published, analyzes data
recently released by the National Health and Nutrition Examination
Survey, part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It's a surprising development, since Americans in general have
gotten taller from one generation to the next. For any population
group in the developed world to get shorter "is more or less
unprecedented in modern times, except in dire circumstances" such as
war or famine, said Komlos, a University of Munich professor.
According to the NHANES data, black women who were born in the
United States around 1980 are, on average, a little shorter than 5-
foot-4 today. Those born in the mid-1960s are, on average, a little
more than half an inch taller.
White women born around 1980, meanwhile, are more than three-
fourths of an inch taller than black women of the same age. Komlos'
study found white men to be a little bit taller on average than
black men but not to a statistically significant extent.
Exactly what these figures mean is not certain. Komlos sees a
relationship between the decline in height and obesity, a national
epidemic that has hit African-American women particularly hard.
According to a 2007 report by the National Center for Health
Statistics, 23.8 percent of black girls 12 to 19 are overweight,
compared with 14.6 percent of white girls. The report did not
specifically cite obesity statistics for teenagers, but it said 51.6
percent of black women ages 20 to 74 are considered obese, compared
with 31.5 percent of white women of the same age. Obesity, Komlos
said, results in youngsters "maxing out" their growth earlier.
Genetics has a significant role in determining a person's height.
But nutrition and lifestyle also have an impact, as does access to
health care, Komlos writes in his study. The study found the height
differential for black women more noticeable at the lower end of the
socioeconomic spectrum, where people's diets tend to be less
healthful and where health care is less accessible.
(C) 2009 Richmond Times-Dispatch. via ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved