Cargando…

Why did children grow so well at hard times? The ultimate importance of pathogen control during puberty

Background and objectives: Secular increase in human height and performance occurred in Europe throughout the 20th century despite the temporally worsening access to nutrients during and after World War II. This pattern is paradoxical under the assumption of the major impact of pre- and postnatal gr...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Hõrak, Peeter, Valge, Markus
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4530472/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26198188
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/emph/eov017
_version_ 1782384905840230400
author Hõrak, Peeter
Valge, Markus
author_facet Hõrak, Peeter
Valge, Markus
author_sort Hõrak, Peeter
collection PubMed
description Background and objectives: Secular increase in human height and performance occurred in Europe throughout the 20th century despite the temporally worsening access to nutrients during and after World War II. This pattern is paradoxical under the assumption of the major impact of pre- and postnatal growth conditions for determination of adult size and human capital. Methodology: We examined the anthropometric parameters of Estonian girls born between 1938 and 1953, and measured around the age of 17 (n = 1475). This period involved two opposite trends in the economic and epidemiological situation: increasing birth-time economic hardships during the war and particularly in the post-war period, and decreasing infant mortality (a proxy of disease burden) after 1947. Results: Height of girls was negatively affected by the number of siblings and positively by parental socioeconomic position, but these effects were weaker than the secular trend. Leg length (an indicator of pre-pubertal growth conditions) was independent of age and birth date while all other traits, including measures of performance (cranial volume, lung capacity and handgrip strength) showed acceleration. The best predictor of size at age 17 was, in most cases, infant mortality in the year when the girls were aged 11. Conclusions and implications: Reduction of disease burden during pubertal growth can override effects of resource shortage at birth. Our results also support the idea that increasing efficiency of pathogen control can contribute to the secular increase in cognitive abilities, i.e. the Flynn effect, and that epidemiological transition is the main driver of secular increase in human capital.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4530472
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2015
publisher Oxford University Press
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-45304722015-08-11 Why did children grow so well at hard times? The ultimate importance of pathogen control during puberty Hõrak, Peeter Valge, Markus Evol Med Public Health Original Research Article Background and objectives: Secular increase in human height and performance occurred in Europe throughout the 20th century despite the temporally worsening access to nutrients during and after World War II. This pattern is paradoxical under the assumption of the major impact of pre- and postnatal growth conditions for determination of adult size and human capital. Methodology: We examined the anthropometric parameters of Estonian girls born between 1938 and 1953, and measured around the age of 17 (n = 1475). This period involved two opposite trends in the economic and epidemiological situation: increasing birth-time economic hardships during the war and particularly in the post-war period, and decreasing infant mortality (a proxy of disease burden) after 1947. Results: Height of girls was negatively affected by the number of siblings and positively by parental socioeconomic position, but these effects were weaker than the secular trend. Leg length (an indicator of pre-pubertal growth conditions) was independent of age and birth date while all other traits, including measures of performance (cranial volume, lung capacity and handgrip strength) showed acceleration. The best predictor of size at age 17 was, in most cases, infant mortality in the year when the girls were aged 11. Conclusions and implications: Reduction of disease burden during pubertal growth can override effects of resource shortage at birth. Our results also support the idea that increasing efficiency of pathogen control can contribute to the secular increase in cognitive abilities, i.e. the Flynn effect, and that epidemiological transition is the main driver of secular increase in human capital. Oxford University Press 2015-07-20 /pmc/articles/PMC4530472/ /pubmed/26198188 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/emph/eov017 Text en © The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Foundation for Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research Article
Hõrak, Peeter
Valge, Markus
Why did children grow so well at hard times? The ultimate importance of pathogen control during puberty
title Why did children grow so well at hard times? The ultimate importance of pathogen control during puberty
title_full Why did children grow so well at hard times? The ultimate importance of pathogen control during puberty
title_fullStr Why did children grow so well at hard times? The ultimate importance of pathogen control during puberty
title_full_unstemmed Why did children grow so well at hard times? The ultimate importance of pathogen control during puberty
title_short Why did children grow so well at hard times? The ultimate importance of pathogen control during puberty
title_sort why did children grow so well at hard times? the ultimate importance of pathogen control during puberty
topic Original Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4530472/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26198188
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/emph/eov017
work_keys_str_mv AT horakpeeter whydidchildrengrowsowellathardtimestheultimateimportanceofpathogencontrolduringpuberty
AT valgemarkus whydidchildrengrowsowellathardtimestheultimateimportanceofpathogencontrolduringpuberty