taller mothers, healthier children
Kompas.com - Is there a relationship between child health and mother's height? Turns out there. According to researchers, women in poor countries who will bear tall children who are healthier, have higher life expectancy rates in infancy and had inherited her mother's height.
The link between height and health is the first time examined by Dr. S.V. Subramanian, Harvard School of Public Health. He and his team analyzed data from 54 developing countries that were collected between 1991 and 2008, and get three million births of women aged 15-49 years.
The respondents were divided into five height categories, ranging from 121 cm is the shortest to more than 160 cm for the highest. Overall, 12 percent of children in this study died before they were five years old. Most were children from mothers in the group short.
Children born to mothers who include dwarf has a 40 percent risk of death higher than those of a group of tall women. According to the researchers report, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Children born to mothers from the short group also tended to birth weight less and have short stature. "High maternal body is also an important factor to determine the child's height, greater influence of maternal education and income," wrote the researchers.
In addition, the study also found that good nutrition during adolescence and postpone marriage and pregnancy will make teenage girls have more height.
Subramanian explains, a person's height reflects the nutritional and environmental Found someone in the early years of his life. "This information could be a consideration for determining desan and targeted nutrition programs, especially for girls and teenagers," he said.
