Dutch men and Latvian women the tallest
Dutch men and Latvian women are the tallest on the planet; according
to the largest ever study of height around the world.
The research, led by scientists from Imperial College London and
using data from most countries in the world, tracked height among young
adult men and women between 1914 and 2014.
Among the findings, published in the journal eLife, the research
revealed South Korean women and Iranian men have shown the biggest
increases in height over the past 100 years. Iranian men have increased
by an average of 16.5cm, and South Korean women by 20.2cm.
Increased
The height of men and women in the UK has increased by around 11cm
over the past century. By comparison, the height of men and women in the
USA has increased by 6cm and 5cm, while the height of Chinese men and
women has increased by around 11cm and 10cm.
The research also revealed once-tall USA had declined from third
tallest men and fourth tallest women in the world in 1914 to 37th and
42nd place respectively in 2014. Overall, the top ten tallest nations in
2014 for men and women were dominated by European countries, and
featured no English-speaking nation. UK women improved from 57th to 38th
place over a century, while men had improved slightly from 36th to 31st
place.
The researchers also found that some countries have stopped growing
over the past 30 to 40 years, despite showing initial increases in the
beginning of the century of study. The USA was one of the first
high-income countries to plateau, and other countries that have seen
similar patterns include the UK, Finland, and Japan. By contrast, Spain
and Italy and many countries in Latin America and East Asia are still
increasing in height.
Furthermore, some countries, particularly those in sub-Saharan
Africa, North Africa and the Middle East have even seen a decline in
average height over the past 30 to 40 years.
Factors
How tall we grow is strongly influenced by nutrition and
environmental factors, although an individual's genetic factors may also
play a role. Children and adolescents who are better nourished and live
in better environments tend to be taller, and height may even be
influenced by a mother's health and nutrition during pregnancy. It has
lifelong consequences for health and even education and earnings. Some
research suggests people who are taller tend to live longer, gain a
better education and even earn more. However, being tall may carry some
health risks, as studies have linked height to a greater risk of certain
cancers including ovarian and prostate.
Professor MajidEzzati from the School of Public Health at Imperial
who led the research said: "This study gives us a picture of the health
of nations over the past century, and reveals the average height of some
nations may even be shrinking while others continue to grow taller. This
confirms we urgently need to address children and adolescents'
environment and nutrition on a global scale, and ensure we're giving the
world's children the best possible start in life."
He added: "Our study also shows the English-speaking world,
especially the USA, is falling behind other high-income nations in
Europe and Asia Pacific. Together with the poor performance of these
countries in terms of obesity, this emphasises the need for more
effective policies towards healthy nutrition throughout life."
Performance
Mary De Silva, Head of Population, Environment and Health at the
Wellcome Trust, who co-funded the study, said: "This is a unique
analysis that shows the real power of combining a hundred years of
population data sources that span the globe. The most striking finding
is that despite the huge increases in height seen in some countries,
there is still a considerable gap between the shortest and tallest
countries. More research is needed to understand the reasons for this
gap and to help devise ways of reducing the disparities in health that
still persist globally."
The research team, which included almost 800 scientists and was in
collaboration with the World Health Organization, used data from a wide
range of sources, including military conscription data, health and
nutrition population surveys, and epidemiological studies. They used
these to generate height information for 18-year- olds in 1914 (who were
born in 1896) through to 18-year- olds in 2014 (who were born in 1996).
Among the findings the team found that:
Dutch men are the tallest on the planet, with an average height of
182.5cm. Latvian women are the tallest on the planet, with an average
height of 170cm.
The top four tallest countries for men are the Netherlands, Belgium,
Estonia and Latvia. The top four tallest countries for women are Latvia,
the Netherlands, Estonia and the Czech Republic.
Men from East Timor were the smallest in the world in 2014, with an
average height of 160cm. Women from Guatemala were the smallest in 2014
with an average height of 149cm.
Difference
The difference between the tallest and shortest countries in the
world in 2014 was about 23cm for men - an increase of 4cm on the height
gap in 1914. The height difference between the world's tallest and
shortest countries for women has remained the same across the century,
at about 20cm.
The height difference between men and women has on average remained
largely unchanged over 100 years - the average height gap was about
11cmin 1914 and 12cmin 2014. The average height of young men and women
has decreased by as much as 5cm in the last 40 years in some countries
in Sub-Saharan Africa such as Sierra Leone, Uganda and Rwanda.
Australian men in 2014 were the only non-European nationality in the
top 25 tallest in the world.
In East Asia, South Korean and Chinese men and women are now taller
than their Japanese counterparts. Adult height plateaued in South Asian
countries like Bangladesh and India at around 5-10 cm shorter than in
East Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea.
The smallest adult men in 1914 were found in Laos, where the average
male height was 153cm, a similar height to a well-nourished 12-year- old
boy living today. In 1914 the smallest women were found in Guatemala,
where the average female height was 140cm, a similar height to a
well-nourished 10-year- old girl.
- MNT
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