IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0037356.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Children of Low Socioeconomic Status Show Accelerated Linear Growth in Early Childhood; Results from the Generation R Study

Author

Listed:
  • Lindsay M Silva
  • Lenie van Rossem
  • Pauline W Jansen
  • Anita C S Hokken-Koelega
  • Henriëtte A Moll
  • Albert Hofman
  • Johan P Mackenbach
  • Vincent W V Jaddoe
  • Hein Raat

Abstract

Objectives: People of low socioeconomic status are shorter than those of high socioeconomic status. The first two years of life being critical for height development, we hypothesized that a low socioeconomic status is associated with a slower linear growth in early childhood. We studied maternal educational level (high, mid-high, mid-low, and low) as a measure of socioeconomic status and its association with repeatedly measured height in children aged 0–2 years, and also examined to what extent known determinants of postnatal growth contribute to this association. Methods: This study was based on data from 2972 mothers with a Dutch ethnicity, and their children participating in The Generation R Study, a population-based cohort study in Rotterdam, the Netherlands (participation rate 61%). All children were born between April 2002 and January 2006. Height was measured at 2 months (mid-90% range 1.0–3.9), 6 months (mid-90% range 5.6–11.4), 14 months (mid-90% range 13.7–17.9) and 25 months of age (mid-90% range 23.6–29.6). Results: At 2 months, children in the lowest educational subgroup were shorter than those in the highest (difference: −0.87 cm; 95% CI: −1.16, −0.58). Between 1 and 18 months, they grew faster than their counterparts. By 14 months, children in the lowest educational subgroup were taller than those in the highest (difference at 14 months: 0.40 cm; 95% CI: 0.08,0.72). Adjustment for other determinants of postnatal growth did not explain the taller height. On the contrary, the differences became even larger (difference at 14 months: 0.61 cm; 95% CI: 0.26,0.95; and at 25 months: 1.00 cm; 95% CI: 0.57,1.43) Conclusions: Compared with children of high socioeconomic status, those of low socioeconomic status show an accelerated linear growth until the18th month of life, leading to an overcompensation of their initial height deficit. The long-term consequences of these findings remain unclear and require further study.

Suggested Citation

  • Lindsay M Silva & Lenie van Rossem & Pauline W Jansen & Anita C S Hokken-Koelega & Henriëtte A Moll & Albert Hofman & Johan P Mackenbach & Vincent W V Jaddoe & Hein Raat, 2012. "Children of Low Socioeconomic Status Show Accelerated Linear Growth in Early Childhood; Results from the Generation R Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(5), pages 1-10, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0037356
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0037356
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0037356
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0037356&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0037356?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Langenberg, C. & Shipley, M.J. & Batty, G.D. & Marmot, M.G., 2005. "Adult socioeconomic position and the association between height and coronary heart disease mortality: Findings from 33 years of follow-up in the Whitehall Study," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 95(4), pages 628-632.
    2. Finch, Brian Karl & Beck, Audrey N., 2011. "Socio-economic status and z-score standardized height-for-age of U.S.-born children (ages 2-6)," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 272-276, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ronan Van Rossem & Isabelle Pannecoucke, 2019. "Poverty and a child’s height development during early childhood: A double disadvantage? A study of the 2006–2009 birth cohorts in Flanders," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(1), pages 1-16, January.
    2. Tony Robertson & Michaela Benzeval, 2014. "Do Mismatches between Pre- and Post-Natal Environments Influence Adult Physiological Functioning?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(1), pages 1-7, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ronan Van Rossem & Isabelle Pannecoucke, 2019. "Poverty and a child’s height development during early childhood: A double disadvantage? A study of the 2006–2009 birth cohorts in Flanders," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(1), pages 1-16, January.
    2. Deniz Karaoğlan & Dürdane Şirin Saraçoğlu, 2018. "Socio-Economic Factors Affecting Early Childhood Health: the Case of Turkey," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(3), pages 1051-1075, June.
    3. Osika, Walter & Ehlin, Anna & Montgomery, Scott M., 2006. "Does height modify the risk of angina associated with economic adversity?," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 398-411, December.
    4. Deniz Karaoğlan & Dürdane Şirin Saracoğlu, 2016. "Socio-Economic Factors Affecting Early Childhood Health: The Case of Turkey," ERC Working Papers 1614, ERC - Economic Research Center, Middle East Technical University, revised 2016.
    5. Grace Wyshak, 2014. "Height, Socioeconomic and Subjective Well-Being Factors among U.S. Women, Ages 49–79," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(6), pages 1-17, June.
    6. Richard J Silverwood & Lee Williamson & Emily M Grundy & Bianca L De Stavola, 2016. "Pathways between Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Childhood Growth in the Scottish Longitudinal Study, 1991–2001," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(10), pages 1-17, October.
    7. Lawal, Abiola S. & Servadio, Joseph L. & Davis, Tate & Ramaswami, Anu & Botchwey, Nisha & Russell, Armistead G., 2021. "Orthogonalization and machine learning methods for residential energy estimation with social and economic indicators," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    8. Jo, Young, 2014. "What money can buy: Family income and childhood obesity," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 15(C), pages 1-12.
    9. Batty, G. David & Shipley, Martin J. & Gunnell, David & Huxley, Rachel & Kivimaki, Mika & Woodward, Mark & Lee, Crystal Man Ying & Smith, George Davey, 2009. "Height, wealth, and health: An overview with new data from three longitudinal studies," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 137-152, July.
    10. Tony Robertson & Michaela Benzeval, 2014. "Do Mismatches between Pre- and Post-Natal Environments Influence Adult Physiological Functioning?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(1), pages 1-7, January.
    11. Lauren Eyler & Alan Hubbard & Catherine Juillard, 2019. "Optimization and validation of the EconomicClusters model for facilitating global health disparities research: Examples from Cameroon and Ghana," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(5), pages 1-22, May.
    12. Sirin Saracoglu & Deniz KARAOĞLAN**, 2017. "Socio-Economic Factors Affecting Early Childhood Health: The Case Of Turkey," EcoMod2017 10749, EcoMod.
    13. Perelman, Julian, 2014. "Are chronic diseases related to height? Results from the Portuguese National Health Interview Survey," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 15(C), pages 56-66.
    14. Do, D. Phuong & Watkins, Daphne C. & Hiermeyer, Martin & Finch, Brian K., 2013. "The relationship between height and neighborhood context across racial/ethnic groups: A multi-level analysis of the 1999–2004 U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 30-41.
    15. Outes, Ingo & Porter, Catherine, 2013. "Catching up from early nutritional deficits? Evidence from rural Ethiopia," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 148-163.
    16. Xianyu Zhang & Yingqi Zhang & Qian Zhang & Peiwu Liu & Rui Guo & Shengyi Jin & Jiawen Liu & Lei Chen & Zhen Ma & Ying Liu, 2020. "Evaluation and Analysis of Water Quality of Marine Aquaculture Area," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-15, February.
    17. Anne Nolan & Richard Layte, 2014. "Socio-economic Inequalities in Child Health in Ireland," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 45(1), pages 25-64.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0037356. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.