Browsing by Subject "Anthropometric inequality"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Biological Well-Being and Inequality in Canary Islands: Lanzarote (Cohorts 1886–1982)
    (2021) Martinez Carrion, J. M.; Candela-Martínez, B.; Román-Cervantes, C.; Economía Aplicada
    Developments in anthropometric history in the Iberian Peninsula have been remarkable in recent decades. In contrast, we barely know about the behavior of insular population groups and infants’ and adults’ growth during the nutritional transition in the Canary Islands. This paper analyzes the height, weight and body mass index of military recruits (conscripts) in a rural municipality from the eastern Canaries during the economic modernization process throughout the 20th century. The case study (municipality of San Bartolomé (SB) in Lanzarote, the island closest to the African continent) uses anthropometric data of military recruits from 1907–2001 (cohorts from 1886 to 1982). The final sample is composed of 1921 recruits’ records that were measured and weighed at the ages of 19–21 years old when adolescent growth had finished. The long-term anthropometric study is carried out using two approaches: a malnutrition and growth retardation approach and an inequality perspective. In the first one, we use the methodology recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) that is based on z-scores. In the second one, we implement several inequality dimensions such as the coefficient of variation (CV), percentiles and an analysis for height and BMI evolution by five socioeconomic categories. The data suggest that improvements in biological well-being were due to advances in nutrition since the 1960s. They show that infant nutrition is sensitively associated with economic growth and demographic and epidemiological changes.
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    Biological Well-Being during the ¿Economic Miracle¿ in Spain: Height, Weight and Body Mass Index of Conscripts in the City of Madrid, 1955¿1974
    Martinez Carrion, J. M.; Sánchez-García, E.; Terán, Jose Manuel; Varea, Carlos; Economía Aplicada
    Typifying historical populations using anthropometric indicators such as height, BMI and weight allows for an analysis of the prevalence of obesity and malnutrition. This study evaluates secular changes in height, weight and body mass for men cohorts at 21 years old, born between 1934 and 1954 who were called up between 1955 and 1974, in the city of Madrid, Spain. In this study we prove the hypothesis that anthropometric variables increase thanks to improvement in diet and significant investments in hygiene and health infrastructure during the 1960s. The results of our analysis show a positive secular change in the trends for height (an increase of 4.67 cm), weight (6.400 kg) and BMI (0.90 Kg/m2), the result of a recovery in standards of living following the war and the autarchy of the 1940s. We also observed a slight trend towards obesity and a reduction in underweight categories at the end of the period is also observed. In conclusion, the secular trends of anthropometric variables in the city of Madrid reflect the recovery of living standards after the deterioration of the nutritional status suffered during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) and the deprivation of the autarchic period.
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    Use of joinpoint regressions to evaluate changes over time in conscript height
    (2021-02-02) Martinez Carrion, J. M.; Terán, J.M.; Sánchez-García, Elena; Bogin, Barry; Economía Aplicada
    Cohort variation in adult height expresses both the impact of socio-economic change on human biology in a wide temporal perspective and social inequalities within populations. We aimed to test the use of joinpoint regressions to identify periods in which changes in height trends were statistically significant.