A new analysis conducted by the Imperial College London has assessed the weight and height of adolescents and school-aged children around the globe. The study, which was published in “The Lancet” journal, used the data of 65 million children, all aged between 5 and 19, from 193 nations around the world.
The analysis discovered a 20 cm difference between children aged 19 in the shortest and tallest nations. This represents a six-year growth gap and an eight-year one for boys and girls respectively. The team of researchers who conducted the study warned that a lack of quality food with regard to childhood nutrition may lead to a rise in childhood obesity and stunted growth. This affects children’s well-being and health for their entire lives.
Using data from 1985–2019, the researchers revealed that the countries with the shortest 19-year olds were mostly in East Africa, Latin America, and Southeast and Southern Asia, including Bangladesh, Guatemala, Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste. The countries that had the tallest 19-year olds were in Central and Northwest Europe, including Iceland, Denmark, Montenegro and the Netherlands.
The study noted that in the last 35 years, world height ranking for the UK had worsened, with 19-year old girls falling from 42nd place at 162.7 cm tall in 1985 to 49th place at 163.9 cm in 2019. The boys also dropped to 39th place at 178.2 cm from 28th place at 176.3cm.
In emerging economies such as South Korea, China and parts of Southeast Asia during the same 35-year period, large improvements in children’s average height were recorded. On the other hand, the height of children — especially boys — in many sub-Saharan African countries has reduced or stagnated in this three-and-a-half-decade period.
The research also evaluated the BMI of the children, which is the measure of weight and height ratio. This measurement indicates if a person has a healthy weight for their height. The researchers discovered that 19-year olds with the lowest BMI’s were in Southern Asian nations such as Bangladesh and India while those with the highest BMI’s were found in New Zealand, the United States, the Middle East and the Pacific Islands. In the study, the difference between the heaviest and lightest BMI’s was about 9 BMI units, which in weight talk is approximately 25kg.
The study’s analysis revealed that after the age of five, children in some nations gain too much weight while not experiencing a comparative increase in height. This is despite the potential for healthy growth as defined by the World Health Organization. The researchers state that this is mostly due to a lack of sufficient and healthy nutrition, as both weight and height gains of a child are closely linked to the quality of their diet.
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