The  Social status influences human growth: A summary and analysis of historical data from German school girls in 1914 with comparison to modern references

Liza Wilke; Sonja  Boeker; Rebecca  Mumm; Detlef  Groth

doi:10.52905/hbph2021.3.22

Authors

Liza Wilke University of Potsdam, Human Biology, 14469 Potsdam, Germany http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8902-169X
Sonja Boeker University of Potsdam, Human Biology, 14469 Potsdam, Germany https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6963-2223
Rebecca Mumm University of Potsdam, Human Biology, 14469 Potsdam, Germany https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9081-0899
Detlef Groth University of Potsdam, Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9441-3978

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52905/hbph2021.3.22

Keywords:

social status, historic data, community effect, strategic growth adjustment

Abstract

Background: In the animal kingdom body size is often linked to dominance and subsequently the standing in social hierarchy. Similarly, human growth has been associated and linked to socioeconomic factors, including one’s social status. This has already been proposed in the early 1900s where data on young German school girls from different social strata have been compared.

Objectives: This paper aims to summarize and analyze these results and make them accessible for non-German speakers. The full English translation of the historic work of Dikanski (Dikanski, 1914) is available as a supplement. Further, this work aims to compare the historical data with modern references, to test three hypotheses: (1) higher social class is positively associated with body height and weight, (2) affluent people from the used historical data match modern references in weight and height and (3) weight distributions are skewed in both modern and historical populations.

Methods: Comparison of historical data from 1914 with WHO and 1980s German data. The data sets, for both body weight and height for 6.0- and 7.0-year-old girls, were fitted onto centile curves and quantile correlation coefficients were calculated.

Results: In historical data social status is positively associated with body height and weight while both are also normally distributed, which marks a significant difference to modern references.

Conclusion: Social status is positively associated with height, signaling social dominance, making children of affluent classes taller. Children from the historical data do not reach the average height of modern children, even under the best environmental conditions. The children of the upper social class were not skewed in weight distribution, although they had the means to become as obese as modern children.

References

Baker, P./Friel, S. (2014). Processed foods and the nutrition transition: evidence from Asia. Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity 15, 564–577. https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.12174.

Bogin, B. (2021a). Social-Economic-Political-Emotional (SEPE) factors regulate human growth. Human Biology and Public Health 1. https://doi.org/10.52905/hbph.v1.10.

Bogin, B. (2021b). Patterns of Human Growth, 3rd ed. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Bogin, B./Scheffler, C./Hermanussen, M. (2017). Global effects of income and income inequality on adult height and sexual dimorphism in height. American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council 29. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.22980.

Bogin, B./Smith, P./Orden, A.B./Varela Silva, M.I./Loucky, J. (2002). Rapid change in height and body proportions of Maya American children. American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council 14, 753–761. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.10092.

Bundesministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft (2018). Zeitreise durch die Ernährung: Essen im Wandel [WWW Document]. URL https://de.readkong.com/page/zeitreise-durch-die-ernahrung-essen-im-wandel-1581180.

Choi, J.-E./Shin, D.W. (2021). Quantile correlation coefficient: a new tail dependence measure. Stat Papers. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00362-021-01268-7.

Czapla, Z./Liczbińska, G. (2014). Height as an indicator of economic status in the Polish territories under Russian rule at the turn of the 19th to 20th century. Journal of biosocial science 46, 686–697. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021932013000503.

de Onis, M./Onyango, A.W./Borghi, E./Siyam, A./Nishida, C./Siekmann, J. (2007). Development of a WHO growth reference for school-aged children and adolescents. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 85, 660–667. https://doi.org/10.2471/blt.07.043497.

Delpeuch, F./Maire, B. (1997). Obésité et développement des pays du sud. Medecine tropicale : revue du Corps de sante colonial 57, 380–388.

Dikanski, M. (1914). Über den Einfluss der sozialen Lage auf die Körpermaße von Schulkindern. München, Universitäts-Kinderklinik, München.

Flügel, B./Greil, H./Sommer, K. (1986). Anthropologischer Atlas. Tribüne, Berlin.

Grupe, G. (2005). Anthropologie: Ein einführendes Lehrbuch, Springer-Lehrbuch. Springer, Berlin.

Hermanussen, M. (2016). Stunted growth. Eur J Clin Nutr 70, 647–649. https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2016.47.

Hermanussen, M. (2013). Auxology - Studying Human Growth and Development., 1st ed. Schweizerbart, Stuttgart.

Hermanussen, M./Bogin, B./Scheffler, C. (2019). The impact of social identity and social dominance on the regulation of human growth: A viewpoint. Acta Paediatr 108, 2132–2134. https://doi.org/10.1111/apa.14970.

Hermanussen, M./Bogin, B./Scheffler, C. (2018). Stunting, starvation and refeeding: a review of forgotten 19th and early 20th century literature. Acta Paediatr 107, 1166–1176. https://doi.org/10.1111/apa.14311.

Hermanussen, M./Scheffler, C. (2016). Stature signals status: The association of stature, status and perceived dominance - a thought experiment. Anthropol Anz 73, 265–274. https://doi.org/10.1127/anthranz/2016/0698.

Hermanussen, M./Scheffler, C./Martin, L./Groth, D./Waxmonsky, J.G./Swanson, J./Nowak-Szczepanska, N./Gomula, A./Apanasewicz, A./Konarski, J.M./Malina, R.M./Bartkowiak, S./Lebedeva, L./Suchomlinov, A./Konstantinov, V./Blum, W./Limony, Y./Chakraborty, R./Kirchengast, S./Tutkuviene, J./Jakimaviciene, E.M./Cepuliene, R./Franken, D./Navazo, B./Moelyo, A.G./Satake, T./Koziel, S. (2021). Growth, Nutrition and Economy: Proceedings of the 27th Aschauer Soiree, held at Krobielowice, Poland, November 16th 2019. Human Biology and Public Health 1. https://doi.org/10.52905/hbph.v1.1.

Hochberg, Z. (2011). Developmental plasticity in child growth and maturation. Frontiers in endocrinology 2, 41. https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2011.00041.

Huchard, E./English, S./Bell, M.B.V./Thavarajah, N./Clutton-Brock, T. (2016). Competitive growth in a cooperative mammal. Nature 533, 532–534. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature17986.

Kostovski, M./Tasic, V./Laban, N./Polenakovic, M./Danilovski, D./Gucev, Z. (2017). Obesity in Childhood and Adolescence, Genetic Factors. Prilozi (Makedonska akademija na naukite i umetnostite. Oddelenie za medicinski nauki) 38, 121–133. https://doi.org/10.2478/prilozi-2018-0013.

Koziel, S./Zaręba, M./Bielicki, T./Scheffler, C./Hermanussen, M. (2019). Social mobility of the father influences child growth: A three-generation study. Am J Hum Biol 31, e23270. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.23270.

Lourenco, S.F./Bonny, J.W./Schwartz, B.L. (2015). Children and Adults Use Physical Size and Numerical Alliances in Third-Party Judgments of Dominance. Frontiers in psychology 6, 2050. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.02050.

Niere, O./Spannemann, L./Stenzel, P./Bogin, B./Hermanussen, M./Scheffler, C. (2020). Plasticity of human growth - a systematic review on psychosocial factors influencing growth. Anthropol Anz. https://doi.org/10.1127/anthranz/2020/1223.

Popkin, B.M. (2001). Nutrition in transition: the changing global nutrition challenge. Asia Pacific journal of clinical nutrition 10 Suppl, S13-8.

Stulp, G./Buunk, A.P./Verhulst, S./Pollet, T.V. (2015). Human height is positively related to interpersonal dominance in dyadic interactions. PloS one 10, e0117860. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0117860.

Tanner, J.M. (1963). Regulation of growth in size in mammals. Nature 199, 845–850. https://doi.org/10.1038/199845a0.

WHO (2022a). Growth reference data for 5- to 10-year-olds: weight for age [WWW Document]. URL https://www.who.int/tools/growth-reference-data-for-5to19-years/indicators/weight-for-age-5to10-years.

WHO (2022b). Growth reference data for 5- to 19-year-olds: height for age [WWW Document]. URL https://www.who.int/tools/growth-reference-data-for-5to19-years/indicators/height-for-age.