IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0220514.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Secular trends in body height, body weight, BMI and fat percentage in Polish university students in a period of 50 years

Author

Listed:
  • Ewa Kalka
  • Anna Pastuszak
  • Krzysztof Buśko

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of the study was to determine changes in the magnitude and direction of secular trends in body height, body weight, body mass index (BMI) and fat percentage in university students from a university of technology and a university of physical education in a period of 50 years. Methods: The data were derived from the examinations of male students from the Warsaw University of Technology, conducted four times, in 1959, 1971, 1994, 2011, and male students from the Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education in Warsaw, who were examined in 1963, 1972, 1996, and 2012. Body height, body weight and thickness of 2 skinfolds (triceps skinfold and abdomen skinfold) were measured. Body mass index (BMI) and fat percentage (FAT%) were also calculated. Results: Current university students are taller and heavier than their peers from the previous decades, with BMI remaining within the reference range. A substantial increase in fat percentage was found in both groups. Over the period of fifty years, mean fat percentage in students from the university of technology increased by 6.3% (F1,3 = 116.56, p

Suggested Citation

  • Ewa Kalka & Anna Pastuszak & Krzysztof Buśko, 2019. "Secular trends in body height, body weight, BMI and fat percentage in Polish university students in a period of 50 years," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(8), pages 1-12, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0220514
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0220514
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0220514
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0220514&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0220514?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cole, T. J., 2003. "The secular trend in human physical growth: a biological view," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 1(2), pages 161-168, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Angus Deaton & Jean Dreze, 2008. "Nutrition in India: Facts and Interpretations," Working Papers 1071, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Research Program in Development Studies..
    2. Eric B. Schneider & Kota Ogasawara & Tim J. Cole, 2021. "Health Shocks, Recovery, and the First Thousand Days: The Effect of the Second World War on Height Growth in Japanese Children," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 47(4), pages 1075-1105, December.
    3. Ahmad A Obeidat, 2019. "Growth Indices for Children and Adolescents in Yanbu as Compared to WHO 2007 Growth References," Current Research in Diabetes & Obesity Journal, Juniper Publishers Inc., vol. 12(2), pages 44-48, October.
    4. Timothy J. Hatton, 2014. "How have Europeans grown so tall?," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 66(2), pages 349-372.
    5. Scott A. Carson, 2017. "Assessing Cumulative Net Nutrition and the Transition from 19th Century Bound to Free-Labor by Ethnic Status," CESifo Working Paper Series 6813, CESifo.
    6. Timothy J. Hatton, 2015. "Stature and Sibship: Historical Evidence," CEH Discussion Papers 039, Centre for Economic History, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    7. Vignerova, J. & Humenikova, L. & Brabec, M. & Riedlova, J. & Blaha, P., 2007. "Long-term changes in body weight, BMI, and adiposity rebound among children and adolescents in the Czech republic," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 5(3), pages 409-425, December.
    8. Ramon Ramon-Muñoz & Josep-Maria Ramon-Muñoz & Begoña Candela-Martínez, 2021. "Sibship Size, Height and Cohort Selection: A Methodological Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-29, December.
    9. Dusko Bjelica & Jovan Gardasevic & Zoran Milosevic & Predrag R. Bozic & Bojan Masanovic, 2021. "Trajectories of Body Height, Body Weight, BMI, and Nutrition Status from 1979 to 1987: A Measurement-Based Analysis of 8740 Montenegrin Male Adolescents from the Municipality of Berane," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-10, May.
    10. Komlos, John & Baur, Marieluise, 2004. "From the tallest to (one of) the fattest: the enigmatic fate of the American population in the 20th century," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 57-74, March.
    11. Spijker, Jeroen J.A. & Cámara, Antonio D. & Blanes, Amand, 2012. "The health transition and biological living standards: Adult height and mortality in 20th-century Spain," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 276-288.
    12. Miloš Hitka & Róbert Sedmák & Pavel Joščák & Lenka Ližbetinová, 2018. "Positive Secular Trend in Slovak Population Urges on Updates of Functional Dimensions of Furniture," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-12, September.
    13. Elena Sánchez-García & José-Miguel Martinez-Carrión & Jose Manuel Terán & Carlos Varea, 2021. "Biological Well-Being during the “Economic Miracle” in Spain: Height, Weight and Body Mass Index of Conscripts in the City of Madrid, 1955–1974," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-16, December.
    14. Javier Núñez & Graciela Pérez, 2021. "The Escape from Malnutrition of Chilean Boys and Girls: Height-for-Age Z Scores in Late XIX and XX Centuries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-20, October.
    15. Schneider, Eric & Ogasawara, Kota & Cole, Tim J., 2020. "The Effect of the Second World War on the Growth Pattern of Height in Japanese Children: Catch-up Growth, Critical Windows and," CEPR Discussion Papers 14808, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Zong, Xin-Nan & Li, Hui & Wu, Hua-Hong & Zhang, Ya-Qin, 2015. "Socioeconomic development and secular trend in height in China," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 258-264.
    17. A'Hearn, Brian & Komlos, John, 2003. "Improvements in Maximum Likelihood Estimators of Truncated Normal Samples with Prior Knowledge of σ," Discussion Papers in Economics 51, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    18. Delajara, Marcelo & Wendelspiess Chávez Juárez, Florian, 2013. "Birthweight outcomes in Bolivia: The role of maternal height, ethnicity, and behavior," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 56-68.
    19. Paul Schultz, T., 2003. "Wage rentals for reproducible human capital: evidence from Ghana and the Ivory Coast," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 1(3), pages 331-366, December.
    20. S V Subramanian & Emre Özaltin & Jocelyn E Finlay, 2011. "Height of Nations: A Socioeconomic Analysis of Cohort Differences and Patterns among Women in 54 Low- to Middle-Income Countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(4), pages 1-13, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0220514. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.