The association of grandmaternal and maternal factors with maternal adult stature.

Background: Stature is an important determinant of several reproductive and non-reproductive health problems. Documentation of secular trends in stature has been based primarily on cross-sectional studies of special populations, primarily of men. The objective of this study is to determine how growth and socio-economic status (SES) factors relate to stature changes among lineal female relatives, maternal grandmothers to mothers.

Methods: The study base was derived from a population-based intergenerational cohort which linked several statewide databases to data from the mothers' own birth certificates: the Washington State Intergenerational Cohort. Mothers in these ethnic groups were separately studied: non-Hispanic Whites, African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics. We generated simple, partial, and multiple correlation coefficients to investigate the association between stature and other growth and SES factors.

Results: A mother's stature is determined partly by her own mother's stature and partly by her birthweight. These two measures are individually stronger predictors of stature than are several available SES factors considered in combination-grandmother's age, parity, marital status, and mother's age. The maximal multiple correlation models yielded R2 values from 18% to 28%.

Conclusions: Growth measures are stronger predictors of intergenerational changes in stature than are the several available socio-economic factors. However, socio-economic factors are partly responsible for the level of achieved prenatal and postnatal growth. Since grandmother's stature is a determinant of mother's birthweight, which in turn is a determinant of infant birthweight, some environmentally influenced determinants of some birth outcomes are already established before a prospective mother is conceived or born.