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Body measurements (heart and paunch girths, wither height, chest depth, pelvic length and width, and body length), body weight, and calving evaluation data (calf birth weight, calf sex, calf presentation, and calving assistance needed) were collected from 1974 parities of 762 Holstein cows between 1968 and 1986. Degree of calving assistance was scored continuously from 1 (no assistance) to 10 (hard mechanical assistance). Phenotypic correlations of dam body traits with calf birth weight were all significantly positive when combined for all parities and ranged from .23 for paunch girth to .27 for body weight and heart girth. Correlations of dam body traits with calving assistance scores were all significantly negative across parities and ranged from -.24 to -.30. Correlations of calf birth weight with calving assistance were higher for first parity (.37) than for all parities (.20). Least squares analysis showed that cows with shorter wither height and shorter pelvises tended to require more calving assistance. Heavier calves, winter calvings, and earlier parity all were related to increased dystocia. Male calves were heavier than female calves and also were associated with greater calving difficulty.

A sample consisting of 1944 Swiss students of both sexes was investigated with regard to distribution over weight categories based on BMI age percentiles and eating behaviour (EAT-26) in relation to age, sex and socio-economic status (SES). In addition, the relationship between BMI and Eating Attitudes Test scores was analysed. More subjects than expected were found to be in the obese weight categories. No clear effect of age and sex on the distribution of the sample across the five BMI classes was observed. There was an inverse relationship between BMI and socio-economic status. On the EAT scale girls scored twice as high as boys. Age had no effect on the EAT scores in females, although it did in males. Socio-economic status and EAT scores were inversely associated. Three risk categories based on the EAT scores were described: EAT 0-9 = no risk (77.5% girls, 93.0% boys), EAT 10-19 = low risk (14.1% girls, 5.5% boys), and EAT > or = 20 = high risk (8.3% girls, 1.5% boys). With regard to both aspects, weight and eating behaviour, female students showed more disturbed eating behaviour and fewer instances of deviation from normal weight. In male subjects there were more deviations from normal weight than instances of disturbed eating behaviour.

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