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A century of trends in adult human height

Publication ,  Journal Article
Bentham, J; Di Cesare, M; Stevens, GA; Zhou, B; Bixby, H; Cowan, M; Fortunato, L; Bennett, JE; Danaei, G; Hajifathalian, K; Lu, Y; Riley, LM ...
Published in: eLife
July 26, 2016
Published version (DOI)

Being taller is associated with enhanced longevity, and higher education and earnings. We reanalysed 1472 population-based studies, with measurement of height on more than 18.6 million participants to estimate mean height for people born between 1896 and 1996 in 200 countries. The largest gain in adult height over the past century has occurred in South Korean women and Iranian men, who became 20.2 cm (95% credible interval 17.5-22.7) and 16.5 cm (13.3- 19.7) taller, respectively. In contrast, there was little change in adult height in some sub-Saharan African countries and in South Asia over the century of analysis. The tallest people over these 100 years are men born in the Netherlands in the last quarter of 20th century, whose average heights surpassed 182.5 cm, and the shortest were women born in Guatemala in 1896 (140.3 cm; 135.8- 144.8). The height differential between the tallest and shortest populations was 19-20 cm a century ago, and has remained the same for women and increased for men a century later despite substantial changes in the ranking of countries.

Duke Scholars

Tazeen Hasan Jafar
Author Tazeen Hasan Jafar Duke Global Health Institute
Tien Yin Wong
Author Tien Yin Wong Ophthalmology
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Published In

eLife

DOI

10.7554/eLife.13410.001

EISSN

2050-084X

Publication Date

July 26, 2016

Volume

5

Issue

2016JULY

Related Subject Headings

  • 0601 Biochemistry and Cell Biology
 

Citation

APA
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MLA
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Bentham, J., Di Cesare, M., Stevens, G. A., Zhou, B., Bixby, H., Cowan, M., … Cama, T. (2016). A century of trends in adult human height. ELife, 5(2016JULY). https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.13410.001
Bentham, J., M. Di Cesare, G. A. Stevens, B. Zhou, H. Bixby, M. Cowan, L. Fortunato, et al. “A century of trends in adult human height.” ELife 5, no. 2016JULY (July 26, 2016). https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.13410.001.
Bentham J, Di Cesare M, Stevens GA, Zhou B, Bixby H, Cowan M, et al. A century of trends in adult human height. eLife. 2016 Jul 26;5(2016JULY).
Bentham, J., et al. “A century of trends in adult human height.” ELife, vol. 5, no. 2016JULY, July 2016. Scopus, doi:10.7554/eLife.13410.001.
Bentham J, Di Cesare M, Stevens GA, Zhou B, Bixby H, Cowan M, Fortunato L, Bennett JE, Danaei G, Hajifathalian K, Lu Y, Riley LM, Laxmaiah A, Kontis V, Paciorek CJ, Ezzati M, Abdeen ZA, Hamid ZA, Abu-Rmeileh NM, Acosta-Cazares B, Adams R, Aekplakorn W, Aguilar-Salinas CA, Agyemang C, Ahmadvand A, Ahrens W, Al-Hazzaa HM, Al-Othman AR, Raddadi RA, Ali MM, Alkerwi A, Alvarez-Pedrerol M, Aly E, Amouyel P, Amuzu A, Andersen LB, Anderssen SA, Anjana RM, Aounallah-Skhiri H, Ariansen I, Aris T, Arlappa N, Arveiler D, Assah FK, Avdicová M, Azizi F, Babu BV, Bahijri S, Balakrishna N, Bandosz P, Banegas JR, Barbagallo CM, Barceló A, Barkat A, Barros MV, Bata I, Batieha AM, Batista RL, Baur LA, Beaglehole R, Romdhane HB, Benet M, Bernabe-Ortiz A, Bernotiene G, Bettiol H, Bhagyalaxmi A, Bharadwaj S, Bhargava SK, Bhatti Z, Bhutta ZA, Bi H, Bi Y, Bjerregaard P, Bjertness E, Bjertness MB, Björkelund C, Blokstra A, Bo S, Bobak M, Boddy LM, Boehm BO, Boeing H, Boissonnet CP, Bongard V, Bovet P, Braeckman L, Bragt MCE, Brajkovich I, Branca F, Breckenkamp J, Brenner H, Brewster LM, Brian GR, Bruno G, Bueno-de-Mesquita HB, Bugge A, Burns C, De León AC, Cacciottolo J, Cama T. A century of trends in adult human height. eLife. 2016 Jul 26;5(2016JULY).

Published In

eLife

DOI

10.7554/eLife.13410.001

EISSN

2050-084X

Publication Date

July 26, 2016

Volume

5

Issue

2016JULY

Related Subject Headings

  • 0601 Biochemistry and Cell Biology