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Updated: Aug 16, 2026

Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study
Published on: February 2, 2017
Morbid obesity is associated with short stature
M Hermanussen1, M Sunder, M Voigt
1Aschauhof, Altenhof, Germany. hermanussen.aschauhof@t-online.de
Abstract:
Body height and body mass index (BMI) were obtained from 807,592 German conscripts born between 1974 and 1978, aged 19-20 years. The conscripts had either completed Gymnasium (secondary school, more than 10 years, A-level), Realschule (secondary school, 10 years, O-level), or Hauptschule (elementary school, 9 years). Maternal data on body height and weight at the beginning of pregnancy from 1,432,368 women were obtained from the German birth statistics (deutsche Perinatalerhebung) 1995-1997. Morbid obesity is associated with short stature. Regardless of school education, average stature of conscripts progressively declines by up to 10 cm when the BMI increases above 38 kg/m2. In addition, morbidly obese young women are shorter than average, though the impact of overweight on adult stature appears to be less pronounced than in males.
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