Cernerud L, Elfving J
Nordic School of Public Health, Göteborg, Sweden.
Scand J Soc Med. 1995 Mar;23(1):23-7. doi: 10.1177/140349489502300105.
The height of children may be used to indicate social inequality. The aim of this study was to analyze the difference in height of the socially more and less privileged 10-year-old Helsinki children in 1963 and 1991 and to compare the social gap to the corresponding gap in 1943, 1963 and 1991 in previous studies of Stockholm children. The difference in mean height of the Helsinki boys in 1963 was 4.5 cm (p < 0.001) and for girls 4.4 cm (p < 0.001). In Stockholm the corresponding differences in 1963 were negligible. Twenty years earlier (in 1943) it was 3.2 cm (p < 0.001) in Stockholm. In 1991 the difference was 1.4 cm (p < 0.05) for boys and 0.6 cm (n.s.) for girls in Helsinki, equivalent to the findings of the Stockholm children at the same time. The well-off Helsinki children already in 1963 were as tall as the Stockholm children. Thus, the decrease of the social gap in height from 1963 to 1991 in Helsinki seems to be mainly due to an increase in height of the socially less privileged children, exactly what was previously found for the Stockholm children between 1943 and 1963. Would the time for the equalization of height mirror the time for the development of the welfare states in Finland and Sweden respectively?
儿童的身高可用于反映社会不平等状况。本研究旨在分析1963年和1991年赫尔辛基社会经济地位较高和较低的10岁儿童的身高差异，并将这种社会差距与此前针对斯德哥尔摩儿童在1943年、1963年和1991年的相应差距进行比较。1963年赫尔辛基男孩的平均身高差异为4.5厘米（p < 0.001），女孩为4.4厘米（p < 0.001）。1963年斯德哥尔摩的相应差异可忽略不计。20年前（1943年），斯德哥尔摩的差异为3.2厘米（p < 0.001）。1991年，赫尔辛基男孩的差异为1.4厘米（p < 0.05），女孩为0.6厘米（无显著差异），与同时期斯德哥尔摩儿童的研究结果相当。1963年时，富裕的赫尔辛基儿童就已经和斯德哥尔摩儿童一样高了。因此，1963年至1991年赫尔辛基身高方面社会差距的缩小似乎主要是由于社会经济地位较低儿童的身高增长，这与此前1943年至1963年斯德哥尔摩儿童的情况完全一致。身高平等化的时间是否分别反映了芬兰和瑞典福利国家的发展时间呢？
