eLife· 2016Q1
A century of trends in adult human height
- 1,551citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2016year
Short summary
Adult human height has increased significantly over the past century, with South Korean women and Iranian men showing the largest gains, while some sub-Saharan African and South Asian countries saw minimal change.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- South Korean women and Iranian men experienced the largest height increases (20.2 cm and 16.5 cm, respectively) over the last century.
- Adult height showed minimal change in some sub-Saharan African and South Asian countries.
- Dutch men born in the late 20th century were the tallest (over 182.5 cm), while Guatemalan women born in 1896 were the shortest (140.3 cm).
- The height gap between the tallest and shortest populations remained stable for women and increased for men over the 100-year period.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
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 (13.3-19.7) 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.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. eLife, 2016 · DOI ↗
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Field: Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health
Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child HealthMedicine