| 1. |
- Bentham, James, et al.
(author)
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A century of trends in adult human height
- 2016
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In: eLIFE. - 2050-084X. ; 5
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- 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 17.522.7) and 16.5 cm (13.319.7) 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; 135.8144.8). 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.
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| 2. |
- Bentham, James, et al.
(author)
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A century of trends in adult human height
- 2016
-
In: eLIFE. - : eLife Sciences Publications Ltd. - 2050-084X. ; 5
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- 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.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Bammann, Karin, et al.
(author)
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Assessment of diet, physical activity and biological, social and environmental factors in a multi-centre European project on diet- and lifestyle-related disorders in children (IDEFICS)
- 2006
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In: Journal of Public Health. - 0943-1853 .- 1613-2238. ; 14, s. 279-289
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Obesity is a major public health problem in developed countries. We present a European project, called Identification and Prevention of Dietary and Lifestyle-induced Health Effects in Children and Infants (IDEFICS), that focuses on diet- and lifestyle-related diseases in children. This paper outlines methodological aspects and means of quality control in IDEFICS. IDEFICS will use a multicentre survey design of a population-based cohort of about 17,000 2- to 10-year-old children in nine European countries (Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Spain and Sweden). The project will investigate the impact of dietary factors such as food intake and food preferences, lifestyle factors such as physical activity, psychosocial factors and genetic factors on the development of obesity and other selected diet- and lifestyle-related disorders. An intervention study will be set up in pre-school and primary school settings in eight of the survey centres. Standardised survey instruments will be designed during the first phase of the project and applied in the surveys by all centres. Standard operation procedures (SOPs) will be developed, as well as a plan for training the personnel involved in the surveys. These activities will be accompanied by a quality control strategy that will encompass the evaluation of process and result quality throughout the project. IDEFICS will develop comparable Europe-wide health indicators and instruments for data collection among young children. Establishment of a new European cohort within IDEFICS will provide a unique opportunity to document the development of the obesity epidemic in the current generation of young Europeans and investigate the impact of primary prevention in European children populations.
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| 5. |
- Bogl, Leonie H, et al.
(author)
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Like me, like you - relative importance of peers and siblings on children's fast food consumption and screen time but not sports club participation depends on age.
- 2020
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In: The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1479-5868. ; 17:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Lifestyle interventions to prevent paediatric obesity often target family and peer settings; their success is likely to depend on the influence that peers and families exert on children's lifestyle behaviors at different developmental stages.First, to determine whether children's lifestyle behavior more closely resembles their peers' or siblings' behaviors. Secondly, to investigate longitudinally whether children's behavioral change is predicted by that of their peers or their siblings as they grow older.The European prospective IDEFICS/I.Family cohort (baseline survey: 2007/2008, first follow-up: 2009/2010, and second follow-up: 2013/2014) aims at investigating risk factors for overweight and related behaviors during childhood and adolescence. The present investigation includes 2694 observations of children and their siblings aged 2 to 18 years. Peers were defined as same-sex, same-age children in the same community and identified from the full cohort. The longitudinal analysis (mean follow-up time: 3.7 years) includes 525 sibling pairs. Children's lifestyle behaviors including fast food consumption (frequency/week), screen time (hours/week) and sports club participation (hours/week) were assessed by questionnaire. Data were analyzed using multilevel linear models.Children's lifestyle behavior was associated with the respective behavior of their peers and sibling for all 3 behaviors. For fast food consumption, the peer resemblance was more than 6-fold higher than the sibling resemblance and the peer resemblance surpassed the sibling resemblance by the age of 9-10 years. The similarities with peers for fast food consumption and screen time steadily increased, while the similarities with siblings steadily decreased with increasing age of the children (Pinteraction < 0.001). In contrast, the relative importance of peers and siblings on sports club duration did not vary by the age of the children. Longitudinal results showed that children's changes in fast food consumption were more strongly associated with those in their peer group than their sibling, in particular if the age gap between siblings was large.In conclusion, our results support the implementation of multi-setting interventions for improving lifestyle behaviors in children. Our findings might also guide future intervention studies in the choice of timing and setting in which interventions are likely to be most effective. From the ages of 9-10 years onwards, family- or home-based interventions targeting children's fast food intake and screen time behavior may become less effective than school- or community-based interventions aimed at peer groups.
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| 6. |
- Buck, Christoph, et al.
(author)
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Urban Moveability and physical activity in children : Longitudinal results from the IDEFICS and I.Family cohort
- 2019
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In: International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. - : BioMed Central. - 1479-5868. ; 16:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Physical activity (PA) is one of the major protective behaviours to prevent non-communicable diseases. Positive effects of the built environment on PA are well investigated, although evidence of this association is mostly based on cross-sectional studies. The present study aims to investigate the longitudinal effects of built environment characteristics in terms of a moveability index on PA of children in their transition phase to adolescence using data of the IDEFICS/I.Family cohort. Methods: We used data on 3394 accelerometer measurements of 2488 children and adolescents aged 3 to 15 years old from survey centres of three countries, Germany, Italy, and Sweden, who participated in up to three surveys over 6 years. In network-dependent home neighbourhoods, a moveability index was calculated based on residential density, land use mix, street connectivity, availability of public transport and public open spaces such as green spaces and public playgrounds in order to quantify opportunities for PA of children and adolescents. Linear trajectories of light PA (LPA) and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) were estimated using linear mixed models accounting for repeated measurements nested within individuals. Least squares means were estimated to quantify differences in trajectories over age. Results: LPA and MVPA declined annually with age by approximately 20 min/day and 2 min/day respectively. In girls, the moveability index showed a consistent significantly positive effect on MVPA (β $ \hat{\beta} $ = 2.14, 95% CI: (0.11; 4.16)) for all ages, while in boys the index significantly lessened the decline in LPA with age for each year. (β $ \hat{\beta} $ = 2.68, 95% CI: (0.46; 4.90)). Availability of public open spaces was more relevant for MVPA in girls and LPA in boys during childhood, whereas in adolescence, residential density and intersection density became more important. Conclusion: Built environment characteristics are important determinants of PA and were found to have a supportive effect that ameliorates the decline in PA during the transition phase from childhood to adolescence. In childhood environmental support for leisure time PA through public open spaces was found to be the most protective factor whereas in adolescence the positive influence of street connectivity and residential density was most supportive of physical activity. © 2019 The Author(s).
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| 7. |
- Börnhorst, Claudia, et al.
(author)
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Potential selection effects when estimating associations between the infancy peak or adiposity rebound and later body mass index in children
- 2017
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In: International Journal of Obesity. - London : Nature Publishing Group. - 0307-0565 .- 1476-5497. ; 41:4, s. 518-526
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- INTRODUCTION:This study aims to evaluate a potential selection effect caused by exclusion of children with non-identifiable infancy peak (IP) and adiposity rebound (AR) when estimating associations between age and body mass index (BMI) at IP and AR and later weight statusSUBJECTS AND METHODS: In 4744 children with at least 4 repeated measurements of height and weight in the age interval from 0 to 8 years (37 998 measurements) participating in the IDEFICS (Identification and Prevention of Dietary- and Lifestyle-Induced Health Effects in Children and Infants)/I.Family cohort study, fractional polynomial multilevel models were used to derive individual BMI trajectories. Based on these trajectories, age and BMI at IP and AR, BMI values and growth velocities at selected ages as well as the area under the BMI curve were estimated. The BMI growth measures were standardized and related to later BMI z-scores (mean age at outcome assessment: 9.2 years).RESULTS: Age and BMI at IP and AR were not identifiable in 5.4% and 7.8% of the children, respectively. These groups of children showed a significantly higher BMI growth during infancy and childhood. In the remaining sample, BMI at IP correlated almost perfectly (r⩾0.99) with BMI at ages 0.5, 1 and 1.5 years, whereas BMI at AR correlated perfectly with BMI at ages 4-6 years (r⩾0.98). In the total study group, BMI values in infancy and childhood were positively associated with later BMI z-scores where associations increased with age. Associations between BMI velocities and later BMI z-scores were largest at ages 5 and 6 years. Results differed for children with non-identifiable IP and AR, demonstrating a selection effect.CONCLUSIONS: IP and AR may not be estimable in children with higher-than-average BMI growth. Excluding these children from analyses may result in a selection bias that distorts effect estimates. BMI values at ages 1 and 5 years might be more appropriate to use as predictors for later weight status instead. © 2017 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature. All rights reserved.
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| 8. |
- Huang, Christina Y., et al.
(author)
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Pester power and its consequences : do European children's food purchasing requests relate to diet and weight outcomes?
- 2016
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In: Public Health Nutrition. - : Cambridge University Press. - 1368-9800 .- 1475-2727. ; 19:13, s. 2393-2403
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Objective Children may influence household spending through pester power'. The present study examined pestering through parent-child food shopping behaviours in relation to children's diet and weight status. Design Cross-sectional and prospective analyses drawn from the IDEFICS study, a cohort study of parents and their children. Children's height and weight were measured and their recent diets were reported by parental proxy based on the Children's Eating Habits Questionnaire-FFQ at baseline and 2-year follow-up. Parents also completed questionnaires at both time points about pestering, including whether the child goes grocery shopping with them, asks for items seen on television and is bought requested food items. Setting Participants were recruited from eight European countries for the IDEFICS study (non-nationally representative sample). Subjects Study participants were children aged 2-9 years at enrolment and their parents. A total of 13 217 parent-child dyads were included at baseline. Two years later, 7820 of the children were re-examined. Results Most parents (63 %) at baseline reported sometimes' acquiescing to their children's requests to purchase specific foods. Pestering was modestly associated with weight and diet. At baseline, children whose parents often' complied consumed more high-sugar and high-fat foods. Children who often' asked for items seen on television were likely to become overweight after 2 years (OR=131), whereas never' asking protected against overweight (OR=072). Conclusions Pestering was modestly related to diet and weight in cross-sectional, but not longitudinal analyses. Asking for items seen on television had the most robust relationships across child outcomes and over time.
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