The association between birth order and adult stature

First-borns are smaller than later-borns at birth. We investigated adult stature of families with three or more adult children, aged between 20 and 70 (mean 32) years. There was no significant correlation between size of the family and final adult stature of the siblings. We found a mean height reduction of first-borns compared to the mean of all sibs of -1.2 cm (P less than 0.02 using conventional analysis of variance, P less than 0.05 using nonparametric prediction configural frequency analysis). Males tend to increase in height with increasing birth order, whereas females do not beyond the second-born. These observations could not be explained by decreasing age of later-born sibs, nor by periods of malnutrition immediately after the war (1945-1948). Thus, we conclude that birth order is a factor that contributes significantly to the variance of adult height within sibships

Analysis of variance · Birth order · Population · Birth, Development, and Health · Demography · Medicine · Internal Medicine

• Did family size affect differences in body height in non-urbanized societies? Evidence from the Lemko community in Poland in the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries

  Open Access•Zbigniew Czapla, Grażyna Liczbińska et al.•Journal of Biosocial Science•2019

  Añadir item

• Biosocial correlates of stature in a 16-year-old British cohort

  Open Access•Thomas R Terrell, C G Nicholas Mascie‐taylor et al.•Journal of Biosocial Science•1991

  Añadir item

• The Metabolic Ghetto

  Open Access•J Wells, Jonathan C K Wells•Metabolic Ghetto•2016

  Añadir item

• Environmental Influences on Young Adult Male Height. A Comparison of Town and Countryside in the Netherlands, 1815-1900

  Open Access•Jan Kok, Erik Beekink et al.•Historical Life Course Studies•2017

  Añadir item

• Temporary and lasting effects of childhood deprivation on male stature. Late adolescent stature and catch-up growth in Woerden (The Netherlands) in the first half of the nineteenth century

  Open Access•Erik Beekink, Jan Kok•The History of the Family•2017

  Añadir item

• Obesity as malnutrition

  Open Access•J Wells, Jonathan C K Wells•American Journal of Human Biology•2012

  Añadir item

• Height and weight differences among South African Urban schoolchildren born in various months of the year

  Open Access•M Henneberg, Graham J Louw et al.•American Journal of Human Biology•1990

  Añadir item

• The relationship between family characteristics and height in Sardinia at the turn of the twentieth century

  Stanislao Mazzoni, Marco Breschi et al.•The History of the Family•2016

  Añadir item

• Income, Birth Order, Siblings, and Anthropometry

  Jyoti Ratan Ghosh, Arup Ratan Bandyopadhyay•Human Biology•2006

  Añadir item

• The association between height and birth order

  Mikko Myrskylä, Karri Silventoinen et al.•Journal of Epidemiology and…•2013

  Añadir item

• Secular changes and predictors of adult height for 86 105 male and female members of the Thai Cohort Study born between 1940 and 1990

  Open Access•Susan J Jordan, Susan Jordan et al.•Journal of Epidemiology and…•2012

  Añadir item

• Four factors influencing birth weight

  Steve Selvin, Dwight T Janerich•Journal of Epidemiology and…•1971

  Añadir item

• Birth order and body size

  Open Access•W W Howells•American Journal of Physical…•1948

  Añadir item