Leg and trunk length at 43 years in relation to childhood health, diet and family circumstances; evidence from the 1946 national birth cohort

Abstract

Adult leg length is particularly sensitive to environmental factors and diet in early childhood because that is the period of most rapid leg growth. Trunk growth is faster than leg growth after infancy and before puberty, and may be associated with the effects of serious illness and parental separation because of the child's growing sensitivity to stressful circumstances, as well as the result of the biological effects of illness.

The association between components of adult height and Type II diabetes and insulin resistance: British Women's Heart and Health Study

“…Total adult height and both trunk and leg length are likely to be influenced by genetic factors but an important determinant of leg length and leg length relative to trunk length is the early childhood environment, in particular infant nutrition [9,10,11]. Adult leg length is, therefore, a useful indicator of infant nutrition and early childhood environmental circumstances.…”

“…The interruption of growth at any time during the life course, but particularly during childhood, results in a relatively long torso and short legs [9,10,11]. Adult short-leg length, relative to trunk length, is a useful indication of poor childhood environmental conditions, in particular poor infant feeding [11]. Osteoporotic shrinkage will have a minimal effect on leg length and differential shrinkage due to chronic disease is not likely to have a marked effect on leg length relative to trunk length.…”

Influence of childhood socioeconomic circumstances, height, and obesity on pulse pressure and systolic and diastolic blood pressure in older people

“…As prenatal growth influences height reached in adulthood, 23 the failure to adjust for some indicator of foetal development could have overestimated the magnitude of the association between height and SBP and underestimated the magnitude of the association between height and DBP. Finally, there are two possible biases in this study with regard to the social class of the father.…”

Associations of adult measures of childhood growth with breast cancer: findings from the British Women's Heart and Health Study

“…While a number of childhood factors, such as stress, infection and nutrition, may interrupt growth and hence result in short legs, a detailed analysis of the British 1946 birth cohort found that infant feeding was the most important childhood factor associated with leg length (Wadsworth et al, 2002). Animal studies have shown that energy restriction leads to growth retardation and decreased risk of cancer (McCay et al, 1939;Hankinson et al, 1998), and a study in humans found that lower energy intake in childhood was associated with reduced cancer risk in adulthood .…”

“…These include hormones such as insulin-likegrowth factor I (IGF-I) (Hankinson et al, 1998;Kaaks et al, 2002), energy intake in childhood (McCay et al, 1939;Hart and Turturro, 1997;Frankel et al, 1998), and also intrauterine growth, reflected by birth weight, which has been found to be positively associated with breast cancer risk (Michels et al, 1996;Stavola et al, 2000;Vatten et al, 2002). Since the two components of adult height -leg length and trunk length -are poorly correlated with each other and appear to be influenced by different early life factors (Gunnell, 2002;Wadsworth et al, 2002), examining their separate associations with breast cancer may provide additional insights into the mechanisms responsible for the association between height and breast cancer. Three case -control studies have reported inconsistent findings in the associations between components of height and breast cancer (Brinkley et al, 1971;Mondina et al, 1992;Swanson et al, 1996).…”