A century of trends in adult human height
Being taller is associated with enhanced longevity, and higher education and earnings. We reanalysed 1472 population-based studies, with measurement of height on more than 18.6 million participants to estimate mean height for people born between 1896 and 1996 in 200 countries. The largest gain in...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2016
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://eprints.usm.my/35732/1/Foo_LH_eLife.13410_2016.pdf |
| _version_ | 1825833334078439424 |
|---|---|
| author | NCD Risk Factor Collaboration, (NCD-RisC) |
| author_facet | NCD Risk Factor Collaboration, (NCD-RisC) |
| author_sort | NCD Risk Factor Collaboration, (NCD-RisC) |
| collection | USM |
| description | Being taller is associated with enhanced longevity, and higher education and earnings.
We reanalysed 1472 population-based studies, with measurement of height on more than 18.6
million participants to estimate mean height for people born between 1896 and 1996 in 200
countries. The largest gain in adult height over the past century has occurred in South Korean
women and Iranian men, who became 20.2 cm (95% credible interval 17.5–22.7) and 16.5 cm (13.2–
19.7) taller, respectively. In contrast, there was little change in adult height in some sub-Saharan
African countries and in South Asia over the century of analysis. The tallest people over these 100
years are men born in the Netherlands in the last quarter of 20th century, whose average heights
surpassed 182.5 cm, and the shortest were women born in Guatemala in 1896 (140.3 cm; 135.8–
144.8). The height differential between the tallest and shortest populations was 19-20 cm a century
ago, and has remained the same for women and increased for men a century later despite
substantial changes in the ranking of countries. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T15:06:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | usm.eprints-35732 |
| institution | Universiti Sains Malaysia |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T15:06:15Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | usm.eprints-357322017-09-05T07:42:00Z http://eprints.usm.my/35732/ A century of trends in adult human height NCD Risk Factor Collaboration, (NCD-RisC) RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine Being taller is associated with enhanced longevity, and higher education and earnings. We reanalysed 1472 population-based studies, with measurement of height on more than 18.6 million participants to estimate mean height for people born between 1896 and 1996 in 200 countries. The largest gain in adult height over the past century has occurred in South Korean women and Iranian men, who became 20.2 cm (95% credible interval 17.5–22.7) and 16.5 cm (13.2– 19.7) taller, respectively. In contrast, there was little change in adult height in some sub-Saharan African countries and in South Asia over the century of analysis. The tallest people over these 100 years are men born in the Netherlands in the last quarter of 20th century, whose average heights surpassed 182.5 cm, and the shortest were women born in Guatemala in 1896 (140.3 cm; 135.8– 144.8). The height differential between the tallest and shortest populations was 19-20 cm a century ago, and has remained the same for women and increased for men a century later despite substantial changes in the ranking of countries. 2016 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://eprints.usm.my/35732/1/Foo_LH_eLife.13410_2016.pdf NCD Risk Factor Collaboration, (NCD-RisC) (2016) A century of trends in adult human height. eLife. pp. 1-29. |
| spellingShingle | RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine NCD Risk Factor Collaboration, (NCD-RisC) A century of trends in adult human height |
| title | A century of trends in adult human height |
| title_full | A century of trends in adult human height |
| title_fullStr | A century of trends in adult human height |
| title_full_unstemmed | A century of trends in adult human height |
| title_short | A century of trends in adult human height |
| title_sort | century of trends in adult human height |
| topic | RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine |
| url | http://eprints.usm.my/35732/1/Foo_LH_eLife.13410_2016.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ncdriskfactorcollaborationncdrisc acenturyoftrendsinadulthumanheight AT ncdriskfactorcollaborationncdrisc centuryoftrendsinadulthumanheight |