The association between weight, height, and head circumference reconsidered.

Background: Under normal nutritional and health conditions, body height, weight and head circumference are significantly related. We hypothesize that the apparent general association between weight, height, and head circumference of the growing child might be misleading.

Methods: We reanalyzed data of 7,444 boys and 7,375 girls measured in East-Germany between 1986 and 1990, aged from 0 to 7 y with measurements of body length/height, leg length, sitting height, biacromial shoulder breadth, thoracic breadth, thoracic depth, thoracic circumference, body weight, head volume, percentage of body fat, and hip skinfold vertical, using principal component analysis.

Body measurements and the variability of sitting postures at preschool age as preconditions for an optimal adjustment of chairs and tables.

Preschool age is a biological stage of intensive longitudinal growth with high plasticity of the growing body and of body postures. It is the period where children learn to persist in a sitting posture for a longer time and to use furniture like chairs or other body supporting systems. The growing body shows a special sensitivity for the manifestation of inappropriate postures.

Sexual dimorphism from birth to age 60 in relation to the type of body shape.

Sexual dimorphism depends on age. It can be analysed within a population by a comparison of sex-specific body measurements based on cross-sectional samples. We analysed four length measurements, three circumferences, and one skinfold diameter of a representative cross-sectional sample of healthy German subjects aged 0 to 65 years.

Patterns of sexual dimorphism from birth to senescence.

Sexual dimorphism is expressed as median of the female values in percent of the median of the male values, of 4 length measurements, 3 circumferences, and 5 measurements of corpulence respectively fat. Data were obtained from a cross-sectional sample of more than 41.000 German subjects, aged from birth to age 62.

Assessment of developmental age: cross-sectional analysis of secondary sexual characteristics.

The developmental age of a growing person does not necessarily correspond to his or her chronological age. The two sexes differ considerably in their developmental tempo, and there are tempo differences also within the same sex. Early developers appear older, late developers appear younger than their chronological age might suggest.

Secular changes are different in distinct subgroups of the growing population.

The change of living conditions in East Germany after the German reunification in 1990 led to intensive secular changes in growth and development. Anthropometric data of height, weight, BMI and thickness of the subcutaneous fat layer are compared from two cross-sectional samples of German children and adolescents aged 6 to 18 years. The first sample was measured around 1989 and the second 10 years later around 1999.

[Anthropometric data, proportion and form in children 2 to 5 years old--a longitudinal study].

A longitudinal anthropometric study with integrated picture documentation was made in the German administrative district of Potsdam-Mittelmark from April 2002 until April 2003. During that time 183 children aged between 2 to 5 years were measured. The results of the study show, that with the help of the calculation method for pictures, presented here for the first time, additional information about the changes of proportions and body shape can be gained and made measurable.

Shall the anthropometry of physique cast new light on the diagnoses and treatment of eating disorders?

Body weight is crucial to eating disorders. Beyond gender, age, and height it is determined by anthropometric features of physique, i. e.