Temporal trends, regional variation and socio-economic differences in height, BMI and body proportions among German conscripts, 1956-2010.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

We analyse temporal trends and regional variation among the most recent available anthropometric data from German conscription in the years 2008-2010 and their historical contextualization since 1956. Design/setting/subjects The overall sample included German conscripts (N 13 857 313) from 1956 to 2010.

Results

German conscripts changed from growing in height to growing in breadth. Over the analysed 54 years, average height of 19-year-old conscripts increased by 6·5 cm from 173·5 cm in 1956 (birth year 1937) to 180·0 cm in 2010 (birth year 1991). This increase plateaued since the 1990s (1970s birth years). The increase in average weight, however, did not lessen during the last two decades but increased in two steps: at the end of the 1980s and after 1999. The weigh

SUBMITTER: Lehmann A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10261587 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature