By observation, it is not difficult to say that people from the Far East, especially those from Korea, Japan and China are short in height, compared to people from Western countries.
However, according to a new study published in the journal eLIFE, the height trend in the Far East has started to change. The researchers looked at statistics on average national heights around the world over the past century. The researchers found that height around the world has changed significantly.
Nearly 800 researchers took part in the study. They combed through about 1,500 surveys, to come up with the measured heights for about 18.6 million people in 200 countries.
The study found that in the United States, height is reducing. For the past 100 years, Americans have grown about 2 inches only.
Back in 1914, the United States had the third tallest men and fourth tallest women in the world. Currently, the country is in the middle of the pack, ranking around 40th for both men and women.
Lead researcher from Imperial College London, Majid Ezzati said the decreasing of height in the United States can be attributed to rise in income inequality in the country, probably denying majority of the population quality food.
“There was a time when the U.S. was the land of plenty. But increasingly over time, the quality of nutrition has worsened. In some sense, you have a large part of the population who are not getting quality food. That drags down the whole place.” Ezzati said.
True to Ezzati’s assertion, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, income inequality has increased significantly in the United States since the 1970s.
According to the study, the Far East showed an exceptional growth rate in height. It is said eighteen-year-olds in Japan, China and South Korea are much taller today than a century ago. The study mentioned Chinese and Koreans as the people who are cruising on the height ranking in the region.
The study found that women in South Korea have gained 8 inches in height, on average, in the past century. This increase is a bigger jump than any other population in the world.
A part from the difference between the West and the East, elsewhere in the world, the study found that men in Iran have gained about 6.5 inches in height in the past hundred years.
In Africa, the researchers found that people are also shrinking in height, just like what is happening in the United States. In many countries in the continent, 18-year-old men have gotten shorter since the 1970s and 1960s, after the end of the colonial era.
Ezzati said the situation in Africa can be attributed to poor health relating to how the population is fed in the region. Ezzati was quoted by NPR as saying: “You have countries that suddenly cut their entire health care budgets and agricultural [budgets] by large amount. Those who were affected the most were the poorest.”
By gender, the study found that men are taller than women in every country by about 5 inches on average. A century ago, it is said the difference was slightly lower, at about 4 inches.
The researchers said although genes play a big role in determining how many inches people grow, nutrition and other childhood diseases could also be a factor. The study also confirmed that taller people tend to have good health, and live longer than short people. It is said taller women have a lower risk of complications during childbirth, and their newborn babies are less likely to die than those born to shorter women.
“There’s increasingly good evidence that people who are taller on average tend to live longer, A big part of that is due to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease [for taller men and women],” Mr Ezzati said.
The researchers wrote in the abstract of the study that the motive behind the study is that, there is the need to better understand why height has changed in different countries by different amounts, in order to use the information obtained to improve nutrition and health across the world.
They also revealed the study would be valuable to understand how much becoming taller has been responsible for improved health and longevity around the world.
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