Komlos John, Lauderdale Benjamin E
Chair of Economic History, University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
Ann Hum Biol. 2007 Mar-Apr;34(2):206-15. doi: 10.1080/03014460601116803.
The secular trend in the height of the US population has been almost neglected in a comparative perspective, despite its being a useful indicator of early-life biological conditions.
The study estimated the height of the US population and compared it to Western European trends after World War II.
The complete set of NHES and NHANES data were analyzed, collected between 1959 and 2004 by the National Center for Health Statistics, in order to construct trends of the physical stature of US-born men and women limited to non-Hispanic blacks and whites. Also analyzed was the trend in the height of US military personnel whose parents were also born in the USA. The trends and levels were compared with those of several European populations.
The increase in the physical stature of US adults slowed down by mid-century concurrent with a substantial acceleration in height attainment in Western and Northern Europe. Military data corroborate this finding in the main. After being the tallest population in the world ever since colonial times, Americans are now shorter than most Western and Northern Europeans and as much as 4.7-5.7 cm shorter than the Dutch, who are the tallest in world today.
Given the well-established relationship between adult stature and early-life biological welfare, it was hypothesized that either American diets are sub-optimal or that the universal health care systems and social safety net of the European welfare states are providing a more favorable early-life health environment than does the American health care system.
尽管美国人口身高的长期趋势是早期生命生物学状况的一个有用指标，但从比较的角度来看，它几乎被忽视了。
本研究估计了美国人口的身高，并将其与二战后西欧的趋势进行比较。
分析了国家卫生统计中心在1959年至2004年期间收集的NHES和NHANES的完整数据集，以构建仅限于非西班牙裔黑人和白人的美国出生男性和女性的身体 stature 趋势。还分析了父母也出生在美国的美国军事人员的身高趋势。将这些趋势和水平与几个欧洲人群的趋势和水平进行了比较。
到本世纪中叶，美国成年人身体 stature 的增长放缓，与此同时，西欧和北欧的身高增长大幅加速。军事数据在很大程度上证实了这一发现。自殖民时代以来一直是世界上最高的人群，美国人现在比大多数西欧和北欧人矮，比当今世界上最高的荷兰人矮4.7 - 5.7厘米。
鉴于成年人 stature 与早期生命生物福利之间已确立的关系，有人推测，要么美国的饮食不理想，要么欧洲福利国家的全民医疗保健系统和社会安全网提供了比美国医疗保健系统更有利的早期生命健康环境。
