第15回 Auxology分科会研究会 2000年11月25日
大妻女子大学
Growth, body proportions, patterns of lifestyle and indicators of physical fitness among Portuguese and Cape Verdean migrant children living in Portugal
Maria Ines Varela-Silva
University of Michigan-Dearborn
The main purposes of this study is to document the effects of different
environments on physical growth and body proportions, patterns of lifestyle
and indicators of physical fitness among Portuguese, Cape Verdeans from
Cape Verde Islands, and Cape Verdean migrant children living in Portugal.
We based our hypothesis in the presupposition that the physical growth is a
reliable indicator to evaluate the quality of the environment (Bogin, 1999,
Bogin et al. 2000). We gathered anthropometric data (height, weight, and
sitting height), used two questionnaires of patterns of lifestyle, and also
the EUROFIT set of physical fitness tests. Cross-sectional samples of
children were measured in 1993 and in 1999.
We found significant differences in height and body proportions, but not in
weight, among groups. In 1993 the Cape Verdean boys and girls from Cape
Verde Islands were significantly shorter than all other groups. The tallest
were the Portuguese-Cape Verdean girls, who differed significantly from the
Portuguese-Cape Verdean boys and Portuguese girls. When we analyzed the
data from the 1999 sample we found that there were no differences between
ethnic or sex groups and the mean heights had declined to equal the Cape
Verdeans of 1993. It was expected that all the groups in 1999 would be
taller than 1993, as the general economic conditions of Portugal have been
improving. The schools have been having several improvements and more
autonomy for developing extra curricular activities, both sportive and
cultural.
We cannot blame the "extremely bad environment of the slums" for the
decline in mean height because the Portuguese subjects do not live in the
slums and they also showed a decline in mean height. Thus we may infer
that some adverse component of the local environment is causing this
effect, but as we do not have any other growth studies from Portuguese
samples in other urban environments we are unable to identify the cause of
this "short term negative secular trend" in height.
In the case of BMI (body mass index), the sample of 1993 had no sex
differences, except in the group of Cape Verdeans, where the boys had
significantly higher values of BMI than the girls. There were ethnic
differences in BMI. The Portuguese group had significantly lower mean BMI
than the two groups of Cape Verdeans. In the 1999 samples, we found that
the Portuguese boys were equal in mean BMI to the Cape Verdean boys in
1993, meaning that the Portuguese BMI decreased. The Portuguese-Cape
Verdean boys from 1999 had the highest values, meaning that their mean
BMI from 1993 increased. However, these boys were not fat. The differences
in the lifestyle data, suggest that this difference in the mean BMI is due
to a greater amount of manual labor, by the Portuguese-Cape Verdeans, which
may build more muscle tissue.
Finally, we also measured siting height in 1999 and we found that the
siting height ratio [(sitting height/height)*100] differed significantly
between ethnic groups, with the Portuguese-Cape Verdeans have lower ratios
meaning they have relatively longer legs for their stature. There is
evidence for both genetic and environmental influences on body proportions
(Bogin, 1999). In this study, we do not really know to what extent the
ethnic group differences are due to one or the other.
References
Bogin, B. (1999). Patterns of Human Growth (2nd Edition). Cambridge:
Cambridge Press
Bogin, B; Smith, P. K.; Loucky, J.; Orden, B.; Varela-Silva, M. I.; Kapell,
M.; MacNee, S. (2000). Plasticity in body proportions of Maya refugees in
the United States. Poster presented at the Human Biology Association
meetings held in San Antonio, Texas, USA from April 10-12.