Adult height, nutrition, and population health
Open accessAbstract
In this review, the potential causes and consequences of adult height, a measure of cumulative net nutrition, in modern populations are summarized. The mechanisms linking adult height and health are examined, with a focus on the role of potential confounders. Evidence across studies indicates that short adult height (reflecting growth retardation) in low- and middle-income countries is driven by environmental conditions, especially net nutrition during early years. Some of the associations of height with health and social outcomes potentially reflect the association between these environmental factors and such outcomes. These conditions are manifested in the substantial differences in adult height that exist between and within countries and over time. This review suggests that adult height is a useful marker of variation in cumulative net nutrition, biological deprivation, and standard of living between and within populations and should be routinely measured. Linkages between adult height and health, within and across generations, suggest that adult height may be a potential tool for monitoring health conditions and that programs focused on offspring outcomes may consider maternal height as a potentially important influence.
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Height has been found to be a useful indicator of variation in cumulative net nutrition, particularly the intake of high-quality proteins.
“Height (in centimetres) was used as a proxy for the sample’s nutritional status as it has been found to be a useful indicator of variation in cumulative net nutrition, particularly the intake of high-quality proteins [20].”
From The secular trend of intelligence test scores: The Danish experience for young men born between 1940 and 2000 (2021) · cites this paper as [20]
The indexed Abstract calls adult height a useful marker of variation in cumulative net nutrition, supporting its use as a nutritional proxy. It does not specifically link height to intake of high-quality proteins, so that part of the claim is unsupported. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredNutrition, particularly high-quality protein, influences body height, head circumference, and intelligence.
“Improved prenatal and postnatal nutrition may also have contributed to the secular increase in intelligence test scores as nutrition, particularly high-quality protein, influences the makeup of the human body, such as body height, head circumference, and intelligence [20, 23–25] and we observed simultaneous increases in body height and intelligence.”
From The secular trend of intelligence test scores: The Danish experience for young men born between 1940 and 2000 (2021) · cites this paper as [20]
The available Abstract-labeled passages contain keywords and bibliographic information, not findings about nutrition’s effects. Searches for high-quality protein, head circumference, and intelligence found no passage in our copy that addresses the claim. (LLM, conf=0.72)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredHeight is a good proxy for population nutritional status at the cohort level, but due to high heritability it is not precise at the individual level, and there may be limited variance in critical nutritional factors in the Danish population.
“For example, height may be a good proxy measure for the population’s nutritional status at the cohort level, but because of its high heritability, it is not precise at the individual level [20] and there may be limited variance in critical nutritional factors in the Danish population.”
From The secular trend of intelligence test scores: The Danish experience for young men born between 1940 and 2000 (2021) · cites this paper as [20]
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Davey Smith, G., & Ebrahim, S. (2003) · International Journal of Epidemiology · doi:10.1093/ije/dyg070 · Cited by 5,882 · see citing works
Hindorff, L. A., Sethupathy, P., Junkins, H. A., Ramos, E. M., Mehta, J. P., Collins, F. S., & Manolio, T. A. (2009) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0903103106 · Cited by 4,013 · see citing works
The fetal and infant origins of adult disease.
Barker, D. J. (1990) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj.301.6761.1111 · Cited by 2,768 · see citing works
Gorber, S. C., Tremblay, M., Moher, D., & Gorber, B. (2007) · Obesity Reviews · doi:10.1111/j.1467-789x.2007.00347.x · Cited by 1,945 · see citing works
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Minică, C. C., Boomsma, D. I., Dolan, C. V., de Geus, E., & Neale, M. C. (2020) · International Journal of Epidemiology · doi:10.1093/ije/dyaa013 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Hegelund, E. R., Teasdale, T. W., Okholm, G. T., Osler, M., Sørensen, T. I. A., Christensen, K., & Mortensen, E. L. (2021) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0261117 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
- Authors
- Perkins, J. M., Subramanian, S. V., Davey Smith, G., & Özaltin, E.
- Affiliations
- World Bank (US)
- Corresponding author
- Perkins, Jessica M.
- Subramanian, S.V.
- Venue
- Nutrition Reviews
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2016-02-29
- Volume
- 74
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 149-165
- ISSN
- 0029-6643 (ISSN-L)
- 1753-4887
- PMC
- PMC4892290
- OpenAlex
- W2305947592
- Cited by
- 405
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 33 · 2025: 40 · 2024: 39 · 2023: 49 · 2022: 52 · 2021: 66 · 2020: 43 · 2019: 36 · 2018: 29 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 6 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 4.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Nutrition Reviews (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Explore Bristol Research (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
- Bristol Research (University of Bristol) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Birth, Development, and Health
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Child Nutrition and Water Access
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Historical Economic and Social Studies
- Keywords
- adult height, growth retardation, living standards, health outcomes, social outcomes, intergenerational transmission, maternal height, low- and middle-income countries
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Body Height, Developing Countries, Diet, Environment, Growth, Humans, Nutritional Status, Public Health, Socioeconomic Factors
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