[Secular growth trend in urban children enrolling primary school in the war time]

During the last century children of the same age experienced a progressive rise in the mean body height and weight. The phenomenon is termed secular trend or acceleration of growth. It is ascribed to the improvement of environmental factors, which, together with genetic legacy, determine both height velocity and final height. Genetic and environmental factors have distinct impact on the two indices of growth. Therefore, one could expect that once reached optimal environmental conditions would lead to the achievement of a peak in height value, and a further rise in weight.

The aim of the study was to determine body height and weight differences between two groups of urban children entering primary school, recorded by school entry medical examination.

One group consisted of 200 children (98 girls, 102 boys) enrolling primary school in 1991, in the war time, and the other included 397 children (195 girls, 202 boys) enrolling primary school in 2003. The groups were matched by age (6.67 +/- 0.33 and 6.70 +/- 0.30 years). The mean body height increased by only 0.20 cm and weight by 0.08 kg, i. e. increments per decade were 0.17 cm for body height and 0.067 kg for weight. The rise in the mean body height and weight was not significant (theight =0.44, p>0.05, tweight=0.21, p>0.05). The mean rise in body height was about 3.5 times lower than the lowest mean rise in the height of 6-year-old children in the rest of the world.

Although the study did not analyze particular environmental factors affecting body growth (socioeconomic, dietary, hygienic, family size), it was clear that the acceleration in body growth, slower than expected, was not due to the achievement of optimal environmental conditions and growth plateau. The recorded values probably resulted from the war induced degradation in economic conditions and augmentation of psychological tensions.