Prenatal effects of intra-uterine growth retardation on adult height of conscripts from Hungary.

Physical development appropriate for age, and the normal rate of development of children, are two well-known indicators of the biological status of populations. Physical development of children is influenced by several factors, and the intrauterine environment may be critical among them. The authors studied the effect of the prenatal environment, as measured by birth length and birth weight, and socio-economic factors, as measured by place of residence and educational level of parents, on the height of 18-year-old conscripts surveyed in 1998. The following results were obtained: 1. The conscripts were classified into one of the following groups: small for gestational age (SGA), appropriate for gestational age (AGA), large for gestational age (LGA) according to their data of birth and their development at birth. Statistically significant differences in birth length and height at 18 years of age were found for the AGA and LGA groups, according to place of residence at birth. In addition, nutrition at birth (and the biological and social inclusion related to this) affects the extent of change in physique between birth and 18 years of age, within each group. The extent of change in height in the SGA group is 122.38 cm, 123.40 cm in the AGA group, and 124.11 cm in the LGA group. With each neonatal developmental group, conscripts from Budapest had the highest values both in body length and height at 18 years of age. 2. The educational level of parents influenced the physical development of their children. Means of birth length, and of body height at the age of 18 years, were greater, the higher the level of education of their parents. The lower the level of education the parents have, the more significant is the difference between birth length and height at the age of 18 years, compared to the sample mean. This is attributed to a health-cultural-information deficit arising from the low level of education of the parents.