Socio-cultural influences on biology of child and adolescence growth WB-BI-ANG-42
1. Basics (The biology of child and adolescent growth)
Human growth curve, developmental phases, puberty, Tanner stages, catch-up growth, mini-growth spurts, basics in statistics (longitudinal growth patterns, centiles, height SD scores)
Practical part: calculating centile curves, comparison normal vs. pathological.
Preparing short presentations of auxological material.
All students should try to get their own height and weight data from their mothers. Parental height, sibling height. Etc.
2. Growth in populations (The biology of child and adolescent growth, and Socio-cultural influences on child and adolescent growth)
Worldwide growth, and growth in middle- and low-income countries, aspects of
psychology, social aspects, and politics
Sex difference in growth throughout history
Climate, conscript data, Bergmann’s rule
Practical part: reading different papers, summarizing these readings, and presenting. Discussing the essentials and the pitfalls of these papers
3. Anthropometry and statistical methods (The biology of child and adolescent growth)
Technical errors of the various techniques, knemometry, sampling bias, historic examples e.g. of science lost papers
Sensitivity, specificity, examples Schuluntersuchungen
Height predictions, target height, within community
Practical part: every student produces his own growth curve, target height
calculations etc.
4. Concept of tempo, biological age (The biology of child and adolescent growth)
Biological age, skeletal age, longitudinal growth, hSDS patterns, LMS method,
Associations between height and weight
Body proportions, somatype, pelvic breath, Frame index and some historic changes
Practical part: analysis of data from the Swiss longitudinal growth study
5. Dominance, politics/economy, growth, and animal models (meerkats) (Socio-cultural influences on child and adolescent growth)
Historic data: pitfalls and “lost science”
Practical part: reading century-old papers, discussing formal and textual aspects of
historic material
ll students should try to collect data on height and weight of migrants in their personal environment. Parental height, sibling height. Etc
6. Community effects in height, (Socio-cultural influences on child and adolescent growth)
Network of influences: family, friends, friends, SES
Swiss conscripts, Japanese data, school children, generational growth
Practical part: conscript data or data from the Polish 3-generation study that is
currently in publication
7. Growth and nutrition/environment/hygienia (Socio-cultural influences on child and adolescent growth)
The traditional definition of stunting, historic data, nutrition interventions, own data,
What is the critical window for growth intervention?
Practical part: analysis of Indian growth data
8. Epiphyseal growth plate (The biology of child and adolescent growth)
Endocrinology, igf and social challenges
Practical part: reading and analyzing data from growth therapies: catch-up growth vs.
no catch-up
9. Migrants (Socio-cultural influences on child and adolescent growth)
Historic data, and modern observations
Impact of social integration
Practical part: Student data of migrants
10. Literature seminar as a summary of the past lectures
Intervention studies
teacher-centered reading of two seminal papers, discussing cut-off points for height vs. skinfold
Practical part: reading and preparing critical presentation of given papers (modern
and historic)
Subject level
Learning outcome code/codes
Assessment criteria
The student will be assessed on the basis of:
1. Presence at lectures and exercises
2. Participation in the discussion
3. Own participation in work on the discussed publications
4. Written assessment of the acquired knowledge
Bibliography
Books:
Hermanussen M. Auxology - Studying human growth and development. Schweizerbart. Stuttgart. 2013
Bogin B. Patterns of human growth. Cambridge Studies in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology 23. Cambridge. UK, 1999.
Articles:
Bogin B, Varea C, Hermanussen M, Scheffler C. Human life course biology: A centennial perspective of scholarship on the human pattern of physical growth and its place in human biocultural evolution. Am J Phys Anthropol. 2018 Apr;165(4):834-854.
Perkins JM, Subramanian SV, Davey Smith G, Özaltin E. Adult height, nutrition, and population health. Nutr Rev. 2016 Mar;74(3):149-65.
NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC). A century of trends in adult human height. Elife. 2016 Jul 26;5. pii: e13410.
Tyrrell J, Jones SE, Beaumont R, Astley CM, Lovell R, Yaghootkar H, Tuke M, Ruth KS, Freathy RM, Hirschhorn JN, Wood AR, Murray A, Weedon MN, Frayling TM. Height, body mass index, and socioeconomic status: mendelian randomisation study in UK Biobank. BMJ. 2016 Mar 8;352:i582.
Lartey A. What would it take to prevent stunted growth in children in sub-Saharan Africa? Proc Nutr Soc. 2015 Nov;74(4):449-53.
Hermanussen M, Scheffler C. Stature signals status: The association of stature, status and perceived dominance - a thought experiment. Anthropol Anz. 2016 Nov 1;73(4):265-274.
Hermanussen M, Bogin B, Scheffler C. Stunting, starvation and refeeding: a review of forgotten 19th and early 20th century literature. Acta Paediatr. 2018 Jul;107(7):1166-1176.
Hermanussen M. Auxology: an update. Horm Res Paediatr. 2010;74(3):153-64.
Nabwera HM, Fulford AJ, Moore SE, Prentice AM. Growth faltering in rural Gambian children after four decades of interventions: a retrospective cohort study. Lancet Glob Health. 2017 Feb;5(2):e208-e216.
Huchard E, English S, Bell MB, Thavarajah N, Clutton-Brock T. Competitive growth in a cooperative mammal. Nature. 2016 May 26;533(7604):532-4.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: