Evan Roberts, "Young but daily growing? The decline of stunting and growth faltering in the United States, 1857-2014"
Abstract: Growth faltering—where children's stature falls below reference standards in infancy and through age 3-—is common in developing countries today. It is less clear how growth faltering has changed over long periods of time. However, historical data on growth patterns is abundant, because of sustained interest in the health of urban children that developed in the late nineteenth century United States. Using unique individual-level data from a 1918 childhood health survey I benchmark growth faltering in the early twentieth century, with the sample matching national growth patterns.
Using published data on children's stature, I then examine how growth patterns changed over time. Although American preschool children around 1920 were taller than populations in developing countries today, a clear pattern of growth faltering through the toddler years is observed. Published growth data on US children from 1900 through World War II suggest growth faltering was common in the United States, and that rural children were slightly taller. Rural and urban differences declined by the beginning of World War II.
Comment: Andrew Ruis, University of Wisconsin
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