Comparative variability and interval correlation in linear growth of Hong Kong and Sudanese infants

Growth in length of children during the first 10 months of life in Hong Kong and Khartoum is compared in terms of levels of between-child variability and length and increment correlations. In Khartoum, all measures of variability are strikingly greater, and correlational patterns differ strikingly from those in Hong Kong. Growth in Hong Kong can be explained largely in terms of a mixture of genetic determination and short-term homeostatic cycles. Such a model does not fit the Khartoum data where there is evidence of at least one additional and different systematic force. This appears to arise from infants who are long at birth being handicapped in their subsequent increment by early weaning, but may also involve widespread catch-up growth from birth. © 1992 Wiley-Liss, Inc.