Black women in the U.S. appear to be shrinking

[Algorem]

Source: Chicago Tribune



They're shorter on average than a generation ago, federal study says

By Tom Hundley | Tribune reporter
December 25, 2008


...In an age when the adult populations of most industrialized nations have grown significantly taller, the average height of black women in the U.S. has been receding, beginning with those born in the late 1960s...

The average height of a black woman born in the 1980s is just under 5 feet 4 inches; her mother, born in the 1960s, is more than half an inch taller. Even her grandmother, born in the 1940s, is a bit taller. The average white woman born in the 1980s is about half an inch taller than her mother.

The gap is "truly phenomenal," according to John Komlos, an economist and historian who has made a specialty of studying human heights. "Such a steep decline is practically unprecedented in modern U.S. history.".

You have to go back to the antebellum South to find a similar shrinkage. The generation of white men born in the 1840s who experienced the ravages of the Civil War lost nearly an inch to their Northern counterparts, Komlos said...



Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-black-women-shrinkingdec25,0,2562107.story

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Lack of access to healthy diets may have some influence.

While I can't explain why the male gender hasn't "shrunk" (yet), I think you can't disclaim diets (or lack thereof) as a factor. This phenomenon isn't exclusively the result of genetics, biology, and zoology.

[DavidDvorkin]

2. I don't understand that part about white men in the antebellum South

The generation born in the 1840s would have been fully grown or close to it by the time the Civil War began. Shouldn't it be the next generation whose growth was affected by the war?

[dipsydoodle]

3. Maybe that referred

to their dicks. :shrug:

[DavidDvorkin]

4. :)

[yardwork]

17. I agree, that date isn't quite correct.

The generation growing up and born in the south during and immediately after the Civil War suffered malnutrition and would have been shorter than previous generations - I can believe that.

[byeya]

5. Womans' height

I have to think it has a lot to do with diet and stress. The Chinese and Japanese, I've read, are an inch or two taller than their grandparents. The deveoping body engages in a dialectic between the genotype and the environment and the Japanese with their documented better diet have grown taller.
The Dutch have "sprung back" from the war and are now the tallest people on earth.
Perhaps some enterprising academic can chart this phenomenon versus diet, other stresses, and exposure to pollutants.

[ensho]

7. kick - health and pollution

nt

[ohio2007]

6. bs out of the tribune.

no wonder they are going under

[DRoseDARs]

9. Er, did you even read the article?

"...according to newly released data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) conducted by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

Which, if memory serves, is not an arm of the Chicago Tribune. :shrug:

[Tutankhamun]

8. Possibly flawed study design.

Inaccurate measurements in either, or both eras.

It could be that more "black" women in today's sample are of mixed descent such as Asian and Hispanic, and therefore have "shorter" genes.

[jkappy]

11. all good points!!

[Quantess]

13. Of all the theories put forth so far, that is the most likely, IMHO.

[ShortnFiery]

15. Bingo. If they publish one or two other INDEPENDENT studies with similar findings, I might buy it.

Otherwise, welcome to *tabloid psychology* brought to you by the ADHD afflicted MSM. :evilgrin:

[Hannah Bell]

20. asians & hispanics don't have "short" genes.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

23. Not specifically,

but people with Native-American or Eastern Asian heritage tend to be, on average, shorter than caucasians or black people. Many Hispanics have significant Native ancestry so Hispanics are, on average, shorter also.

[fed_up_mother]

21. My thinking. Also, how may black women in the study weren't descendants of slaves

[Tanuki]

10. Low birth weight and prematurity are more common in the African American population

for a variety of societal reasons. Maybe they never fully catch up. Also, the report notes obesity as a factor, but this may be due to the role of obesity in triggering early menarche, which is associated with shorter adult stature.

[surrealAmerican]

12. Since this is women only, there is also the possibility ...

... that early puberty might be a factor.

[biopowertoday]

14. upper-income black women are growing taller it says:

..................A Chicago native who is a professor at the University of Munich, Komlos made a name for himself several years ago when his research revealed that the average height of adult Americans, once the tallest folk to roam the planet, had stopped rising after World War II and has since been surpassed by that of several European nations. The Dutch now lay claim to the title of tallest.

Komlos' latest findings, based on the NHANES data, suggest that after nearly 25 years of stagnation, the average height of adult Americans born from 1975 to 1986 has edged up again—with the exception of black women, whose height is moving in the opposite direction.

The reason this matters, according to Komlos, is because "height is a very good overall indicator of how well the human organism thrives in its socioeconomic environment."

His argument is bolstered by another discovery: While the heights of low- and middle-income black women are plummeting, upper-income black women are growing taller and rapidly closing the gap with their white counterparts.

An individual's height is fixed mainly by genes, but the average height of different categories of people is determined to a large extent by external factors.

Komlos, who has been studying heights since the early 1980s, says the downward trend among black women was "quite unexpected.

[ShortnFiery]

16. This is bogus. We know nothing about the sampling populations. If the samples are not large

and do NOT factor out (control for) other intervening variables, this is just unrepresentative spurious correlational data, proving nothing. Just water cooler "smack." How many upper income black women? How many and specifically where in the USA? Cities and/or rural areas? Did they control for Parents' heights? etc.???

[yardwork]

18. Well, let's not immediately assume that it's bogus.

The article states:

The difference in stature between white women and black women has now stretched to three-quarters of an inch and appears to be increasing, according to newly released data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) conducted by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The main culprit appears to be diet.

There are serious problems with food distribution in the U.S. Grocery stores are no longer located in urban centers or in many rural areas. The gap between rich and poor is growing, and poor people often have access only to lousy food - snacks and processed food found in convenience stores, which are the only stores accessible to many poor.

I can believe this.

[pitohui]

19. i believe it to because of the cost/access to fresh dairy

the tallest people in the world, the dutch, have access and high consumption of some of the best and freshest dairy in the world

the people who seem to have "shot up" the most, starting very short and suddenly becoming much taller, in my humble impression, the japanese, went from a diet of no dairy at all to having access to "american" fats including butter and cheese in less than 100 years

if you live on the wrong side of the tracks and have to buy food at a convenience/korean grocery, the prices are so scary -- i can't be the only person who ever said "fuck it" and just filled up on cheetos for the calories instead of getting enough milk and cheese, i can see if you live in those neighborhoods and can't ever get out, hell ya, your diet is going to be some screwed

also greens, an alternative source of calcium (required for bones and height) are just not available in a lot of the urban quickie stores

[wickerwoman]

22. Yep, it's super-obvious if you go to China

and look at three generations of the same family. Grandma and grandpa (born in the 40's and 50's and lucky to have made it out) barely clear 5 feet. Their kids born in the 60s and 70's are at least 6" taller than them. And many of the grandkids born in the 80's and 90's are taller than their grandparents well before they hit puberty. It's not at all uncommon to see college-aged Chinese boys who are over 6' tall and girls who are noticeably taller than their fathers. So much for "short genes" in Asia.

Anecdotally, my mother is five inches taller than I am and I ate an appalling diet when I was a kid. I lived on coco pops, greasy school lunch cheeseburgers, tater tots, ice cream, potato chips, chocolate and maybe one vegetable a week (usually frozen corn). I shudder to think how much I stunted my own growth with my fruit and veggie phobia.