Father's unemployment and height of primary school children in Britain

In a nutritional surveillance system of 5-11-year-old children the association between father's employment status and his child's height, weight-for-height and their rates of change over 2 years were assessed. The study was carried out in three samples: quasi-representative English sample 1984-86; quasi-representative Scottish samples 1983/84-1985/86; and a sample of English inner city areas 1983-85. For the cross-sectional analysis the sample sizes were 6527 for the English representative sample, 4285 for the Scottish representative sample and 6709 for the English inner city areas sample. In an analysis of height gain in 2 years the samples comprised 3814, 2676 and 3682 children respectively. In the analysis the following data were used: father's employment status and social class; number of children in the family; parents' reported height and child's reported birth weight; and child's height and weight measurements and a classification of ethnic origin obtained during fieldwork. Children with an unemployed father were shorter, especially if the father was unemployed for more than a year, than children with a currently employed father. After adjustment for parents' height, child's birth weight, father's social class and family size the difference persisted but reduced, to approximately 1.2 cm. Height gain in a 2-year period was not associated with father's employment status. If father's unemployment is causally linked to child's height a child is most vulnerable at pre-school age.