Stunted Growth. Proceedings of the 23rd Aschauer Soiree, Held at Aschauhof, Germany, November 7th 2015.

Twenty-four scientists met at Aschauhof, Altenhof, Germany, to discuss the associations between child growth and development, and nutrition, health, environment and psychology. Meta-analyses of body height, height variability and household inequality, in historic and modern growth studies published since 1794, highlighting the enormously flexible patterns of child and adolescent height and weight increments throughout history which do not only depend on genetics, prenatal development, nutrition, health, and economic circumstances, but reflect social interactions. A Quality of Life in Short Stature Youth Questionnaire was presented to cross-culturally assess health-related quality of life in children. Changes of child body proportions in recent history, the relation between height and longevity in historic Dutch samples and also measures of body height in skeletal remains belonged to the topics of this meeting. Bayesian approaches and Monte Carlo simulations offer new statistical tools for the study of human growth.

Development of regional variety of the biological standard of living in the Netherlands, 1812-1913.

This study focuses on regional patterns in stature in Dutch society during the 19th and early 20th century (1813-1913). To analyze regional patterns and transitions the HSN Database Giants is used. Results confirm that in the first period (1830-1860) differences in the biological standard of living were substantial. The less market-oriented inland provinces had the highest level. This is in line with the Komlos-hypothesis. The modernization of the Dutch economy in the second half of the 19th century was accompanied by a substantial increase in average height and a reversal of the spatial pattern of living standards as modernization was more important in the market oriented regions. Nevertheless, regional differences remained substantial and there was no pattern of convergence. Conscripts from the market-oriented coastal provinces took over the lead from the inland provinces. I tested for an urban premium during the last period (1890-1913). This was confirmed, although it did not manifest itself in cities like Amsterdam and Rotterdam, but rather in medium-sized and small cities.

On estimators for truncated height samples.

Statistical inference from truncated height data is often based on distributional assumptions. In this paper we analyze a data set of over 23,000 conscript height observations, covering nearly all conscripts in Drenthe, a province of the Netherlands, over the period 1826--1860. The data do not satisfy the normality assumption. We demonstrate that the ML estimators of the mean proposed for normally distributed data do not yield satisfactory results. We propose a new estimator that exploits the relationship between the conditional mean of the observations above the minimum height requirement and the conditional mean and proportion of conscripts below the minimum height requirement.

Height, income, and nutrition in the Netherlands: the second half of the 19th century.

This paper explores the relationship between height and its determinants, paying explicit attention to the dynamic nature of the velocity of the growth profile. The relationship between height and some measures of income and nutrition is characterized by a changing lag pattern in 19th century the Netherlands.