Department of Economics, University of Sussex, Arts E, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9RF, UK.
Econ Hum Biol. 2010 Mar;8(1):16-29. doi: 10.1016/j.ehb.2009.12.002. Epub 2009 Dec 23.
How did nutritional status develop in sub-Saharan Africa during the second half of the 20th century, and what role did economic development play in nutrition and health? Aggregating data from more than 200,000 women in 28 sub-Saharan African countries, we use mean height as an indicator of net nutritional status and find that the nutritional status of 1960 birth cohorts was relatively high. This situation, however, was not sustained. In almost all countries examined, mean heights were stagnating or decreasing after the 1970 cohorts. Using regression analysis we model human growth from birth to maturity, and find that economic growth had a significant and robust influence on final adult height at two distinct periods of the life cycle: (1) in the first years of life and (2) at puberty. We conclude that the economic difficulties of the late 1970s and 1980s contributed to the decline or stagnation in heights.
20 世纪后半叶撒哈拉以南非洲的营养状况是如何发展的，经济发展在营养和健康方面扮演了什么角色？我们汇总了来自 28 个撒哈拉以南非洲国家的 20 多万名女性的数据，用平均身高作为净营养状况的指标，发现 1960 年出生队列的营养状况相对较高。然而，这种情况并没有持续下去。在我们研究的几乎所有国家中，1970 年后出生队列的平均身高都停滞不前或下降。我们利用回归分析来建立从出生到成年的人类生长模型，发现经济增长对生命周期中两个不同阶段的最终成人身高有显著而稳健的影响：（1）在生命的最初几年，（2）在青春期。我们的结论是，20 世纪 70 年代末和 80 年代的经济困难导致身高下降或停滞。
