Comments
AskMoreQuestionsOk t1_je9eroo wrote
That’s interesting, growing up, I had always been under the impression that rural children would be healthier because of lack of pollution. I didn’t know there was a height advantage.
roboninja t1_je9l6ix wrote
That could be due to the privilege of being from one of the wealthy countries they mentioned that did not follow this trend in the 20th century?
Carbon140 t1_je9tz24 wrote
This is a global study, it's including poverty stricken farmers in africa/india/Indonesia etc. This trend was seen in "all but a few wealthy countries", so if you grew up in a wealthy country that provides decent access to schooling/nutrition etc for its more rural population then more than likely what you suggest is true.
Foraning t1_jebhw38 wrote
At least in western Europe you tend to see more unhealthy habits in the countryside. They also live shorter lives on average.
[deleted] t1_je9tnjl wrote
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dumnezero t1_jebbtgn wrote
Height isn't necessarily an advantage, height is correlated with a bunch of health problems related to circulation and nerves. There are also associations with diseases, here's a fun article: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2012.10517
Karasumor1 t1_jeamh95 wrote
shrunk by the suburbanites burning poison and covering everything in asphalt because they're lazy and selfish
[deleted] t1_jeapahe wrote
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[deleted] t1_jebp75a wrote
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NerdJoshua t1_jecaxay wrote
Maybe it's because the urban villages in the third world haven't developed yet.
[deleted] t1_jed401v wrote
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chrisdh79 OP t1_je9at3x wrote
From the article: This is according to a new global analysis of trends in child and adolescent height and body mass index (BMI) led by Imperial College London and published in Nature.
The research, by a global consortium of more than 1500 researchers and physicians, analysed height and weight data from 71 million children and adolescents (aged 5 to 19 years) across urban and rural areas of 200 countries from 1990 to 2020.
Cities can provide a multitude of opportunities for better education, nutrition, sports and recreation, and healthcare that contributed to school-aged children and adolescents living in cities being taller than their rural counterparts in the 20th century in all but a few wealthy countries.
The new study found that in the 21st century, this urban height advantage shrank in most countries as a result of accelerating improvements in height for children and adolescents in rural areas.
The study also assessed children’s BMI - an indicator of whether they have a healthy weight for their height. The researchers found that on average children living in cities had a slightly higher BMI than children in rural areas in 1990. By 2020, BMI averages rose for most countries, albeit faster for urban children, except in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia, where BMI rose faster in rural areas.