Geographical distribution of adolescent body height with respect to effective day length in Japan: an ecological analysis.

ABSTRACT: The height of Japanese youth raised in the northern region tends to be greater than that of youth raised in the southern region; therefore, a geographical gradient in youth body height exists. Although this gradient has existed for about 100 years, the reasons for it remain unclear. Consideration of the nutritional improvement, economic growth, and intense migration that has occurred in this period indicates that it is probably the result of environmental rather than nutritional or genetic factors. To identify possible environmental factors, ecological analysis of prefecture-level data on the body size of 8- to 17-year-old youth averaged over a 13-year period (1996 to 2008) and Japanese mesh climatic data on the climatic variables of temperature, solar radiation, and effective day length (

SUBMITTER: Yokoya M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3515496 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature