Environmental Temperature and Human Growth in Early Life

Regional variation in weight‐for‐height z‐scores and surface area/body mass ratio of Chilean children from birth to 3 years of age

“…SA/mass between birth and 3 years of age showed a decreasing pattern and a drastic decline during the first year of age, similar to that described by Wells (). However, there was considerable heterogeneity in the patterns of overall mean SA/mass between counties.…”

“…Larger organisms are better adapted to colder environments because they have relatively less surface area through which to lose heat, whilst smaller animals are better suited to warmer environments because they can dissipate heat given their higher surface area (Leonard & Katzmarzyk, ). Numerous studies have corroborated this rule in extinct and contemporary adult human populations (Béguelin, ; Bergmann, ; Foster & Collard, ; Fukase et al, ; Gilligan & Bulbeck, ; Katzmarzyk & Leonard, b; Kurki et al, ; Leonard & Katzmarzyk, ; Wells, ), showing similar results even though with different magnitudes. The results from the current study suggest that the growth of Chilean children during their first 3 years may be affected by ecogeographic factors such as Bergmann's rule, after controlling for socioeconomic variables.…”

“…Weight and height were used to calculate WHZ utilizing the WHO Anthro program (http://www.who.int/childgrowth/software/en/), while surface area (SA) was calculated from weight and height using the equation of Gehan and George (), which has been used in previous studies (Katzmarzyk & Leonard, b; Wells, ). SA/mass was calculated as SA(cm 2 )/mass(kg).…”

Effect of seasonal programming on fetal development and longevity: Links with environmental temperature

“…Concomitantly, these individuals demonstrated statistically lower risk for fetal growth restriction and premature birth. The warmer part of the year may be relatively advantageous for gestation-and, thus, not for giving birth-because of the favorable seasonal variations in environmental temperature (Wells, 2000) and sunlight exposure (Tustin et al, 2004). On the other hand, during the warmer periods environmental stress may trigger premature delivery more frequently (Lajinian et al, 1997;Porter et al, 1999) leading to the observed earlier gestational age independently to variations in intrauterine conditions during pregnancy.…”

Radiographic evaluation of bone maturations in children and adolescents living in Erzurum using Greulich-Pyle method

“…[2,3] However, the processes of bone development might be adversely affected with various diseases, in addition to factors including race, genetic inclination, ethnicity, socio-economic status, geographical factors (altitude, climate) and gender. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] Although different methods are used in the determination of BA, the most commonly used ones are the Greulich-Pyle (GP), Tanner-Whitehouse (TW) 2 and TW3 methods. Greulich and Pyle published the "Radiographic atlas of skeletal development of the hand and the wrist" in 1959 and the GP method was developed based on the bone maturation values of children and adolescents with high socio-economic status residing in the United States.…”