Socioeconomic factors and growth during childhood and early adolescence in Jena children.

The influence of socioeconomic parameters (number of children in the family, birth order of subject, professional status of the father, education of the mother) and background characteristics (birth length, birth weight and age of the mother at birth of the child) of growth in body height in children from 4 to 12 years of age was investigated. The analysis is based on data from a longitudinal growth survey, which started with 207 children (98 males and 109 females) from Jena (Germany) in 1985. Multiple regression analysis was used to estimate the degree of relationship between height and the social or background factors. In this study no differences in growth between children of different social groups were found. Variation in height of girls was mainly affected by the biological factor length at birth of the child.

[Correlation between physical development and dentition based on the Jena Longitudinal Study]. / Untersuchungen über den Zusammenhang zwischen körperlicher Entwicklung und Dentition anhand der Jenaer Längsschnittstudie.

In this paper body height, body weight and several head measurements from children with different dental age were compared. In addition it was investigated, if the increasing rates in the body and head measurements in the separate dentition. It could be shown, that in body measurements as well as in head measurements late teether seem to have a tendency to the smallest mean values, early teether show a tendency to higher mean values. This trend is in girls clearer than in boys. The increasing rates of the body and head measurements differ in the separate dentition stages, but do not allow conclusions of the dentition process.

[Tooth eruption in Jena children in the first phase of mixed dentition]. / Zahneruption bei Jenaer Kindern in der ersten Phase des Wechselgebisses.

Based on the process of tooth eruption in children of Jena during the first period of erupting permanent teeth secular changes of the dentition were investigated and the topicality of the current tables for dental age were checked. Mean age of eruption was computed for the individual types of teeth and for each sex in Jena's children and curves for eruption were constructed. On this basis population-specific standards for the dental age were calculated and the children were subdivided into "late, normal or early teether". By comparing the methods for age estimation using the number of teeth or the roentgenological method from Demirjian et al. (1973) it could be shown, that both methods lead to comparable results in the first period of permanent teeth eruption.

[Effect of changed conditions on body height and body weight of preschool children in Jena]. / Auswirkungen veränderter Lebensbedingungen auf Körperhöhe und Körpergewicht bei Jenaer Vorschulkindern.

This article reports results of an anthropological investigation on pre-school children from 1994. The body height and weight are presented and compared with results of the Jena Longitudinal Study and results of the investigations of school children which are carried out in Jena in relatively regular intervals since 1880. For the increase of the body weight since 1985/86 changes in the nutritional situation of the people from East-Germany are discussed. Other changes in the living conditions influencing the somatic development are analysed.

[Dynamics of the growth intensity of Jena school children since 1880]. / Zur Dynamik der Wachstumsintensität bei Jenaer Schulkindern seit 1880.

The intensity of growth of Jena school children at the age of 7 to 14 years has been investigated between 1880 and 1985. In the regarded 105 years the intensity of growth showed little changes with the tendency of a gradual increase. The analysis differentiated for age reveals partially different results compared for the whole interval between 7 and 14 years. These differences result from a shifting of phases of intensified growth into ontogenetically earlier age stages, which can be traced back to the secular trend. The increase of the growth intensity caused by the secular trend is significantly smaller in the school age than in the preschool age.

[Growth in body height by children between 4 and 12 years of age--results of the Jena longitudinal study]. / Die Entwicklung der Körperhöhe bei Kindern zwischen 4 und 12 Jahren--Ergebnisse der Jenaer Längsschnittuntersuchung.

In the autumn of 1985 an anthropological longitudinal investigation on 104 female and 98 male children at the age of 4 and 4.5 years was started in Jena. The present paper gives a short survey on this longitudinal study. Standards for body height (mean and standard deviation) of the 4-12 years old boys and girls, measured in this study, are presented and percentile curves are constructed. For the individual development of the body height increments are calculated. Comparison of the height standards with those of national and of European studies reveal only minor differences. In the higher age classes the Jena probands show the greatest values of body height. The presented percentile curves should be used by paediatricians, especially.

[Results of the anthropologic studies of school children in Jena between 1880 and 1985]. / Ergebnisse Jenaer anthropologischer Schulkinderuntersuchungen zwischen 1880 und 1985.

The present report is based on the results from anthropological examinations on schoolchildren, which have been carried out in Jena since 1880. The introduction to the paper gives a survey on the goals of these inquiries, followed by remarks on secular changes in selected measurements of the body (body height, body weight, chest circumference). Besides the extent of the changes in these features, the anticipation of the pubertal growth period and--by means of the relation of body height to chest circumference--a becoming slimmer of today's population of schoolchildren is documented. The comparison of the findings of 1975 and 1985 shows that, regarding the features mentioned, the acceleration in the Jena probands (although in part with reduced intensity) has lasted up to the present time.