The prevalence of obesity among American children and adults has increased over the past few decades. This paper reports secular changes in stature, weight, and fatness in three groups of urban African American adolescents between 11 and 15 years of age of comparable socioeconomic status, ethnic background, and region measured in the 1960's, 1970's, and 1990's. Adolescents measured in the 1990's were heavier and only somewhat taller than those measured in the 1960's and 1970's and significantly fatter than those measured in the 1970's. Adolescents measured in the 1990's were taller at younger ages (11-12 years) and markedly heavier, at all ages, than the NHANES I reference (Center For Disease Control, 1990). A threefold increase in males and a fourfold increase in females in the prevalence of obesity, defined by a BMI and triceps skinfold above the NHANES I 95th percentile occurred among these adolescents in the last two decades. Using the BMI only, the prevalence of overweight (1990's) was 17.6% based on the 95th percentile and 34.9% based on the 85th percentile of NHANES I (Must et al., 1991). These prevalence estimates exceed those derived from the first phase of NHANES III, 10.9% based on the 95th percentile and 22% based on the 85th percentile (NHES II and III) (Troiano, 1995). The alarming increase in overweight and obesity prevalence in this urban African American sample indicates that secular changes in adiposity are greater for certain subgroups of the U.S. population and that these groups may be at increased risk for future health problems. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

We employ samples of children of known chronological age to demonstrate the significance of random and systematic effects on maturation in both dental and skeletal development. Differences between chronological age for dental age in young healthy Canadian children can be as much as 100% of the actual age of the children. For skeletal development by reference to Greulich-Pyle standards, three samples of known-age children from Mexico document parallel effects: 1) 183 six-year-old children have skeletal-based ages with a 95% confidence interval of 4-8 years; 2) 80% of 217 4.0-4.5-year-old children are underaged by 1-3 years; and 3) 130 children of skeletal age between 39 and 44 months are actually between 4 and 7.4 chronological years of age. The Mexican samples are drawn from a population living under conditions of environmental stress with chronic mild to moderate protein-energy malnutrition and moderate to high levels of infectious disease. These children may parallel those from the past, whose remains are studied by skeletal biologists or paleoanthropologists. Our findings reinforce concerns expressed in extant studies regarding the accuracy of age-at-death reconstructions.

American Journal of Human BiologyVolume 8, Issue 5 p. 685-686 Book Review Long Bone Growth in Infants and Children: Assessment of Nutritional Status John Lukacs, Corresponding Author John Lukacs Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OregonDepartment of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OregonSearch for more papers by this author John Lukacs, Corresponding Author John Lukacs Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OregonDepartment of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OregonSearch for more papers by this author First published: 1996 https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1520-6300(1996)8:5<685::AID-AJHB16>3.0.CO;2-IAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume8, Issue51996Pages 685-686 RelatedInformation

American Journal of Human BiologyVolume 7, Issue 3 p. i-ii Obituary Elizabeth Smithgall Watts-Parrish (1941–1994) Francis E. Johnston, Francis E. Johnston University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaSearch for more papers by this author Francis E. Johnston, Francis E. Johnston University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaSearch for more papers by this author First published: 1995 https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.1310070302AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL No abstract is available for this article. References Developmental changes in compact bone relationships in the second metacarpal (with Johnston FE, Malina RM, Galbraith MA). Human Biology, 38: 141– 151, 1966. (Published as Smithgall, EB.) Skeletal maturation in the rhesus monkey and its relationship to growth and sexual maturity. In GH Bourne (ed): The Rhesus Monkey, Vol. 2, pp. 245– 260. New York: Academic Press, 1975. Biosocial Interrelations in Population Adaptation (edited, with FE Johnston and GW Lasker). The Hague: Mouton, 1975. Nonhuman Primate Models for Human Growth and Development (edited). New York: Alan R. Liss, Inc., 1985. Evolution of the human growth curve. In F Falkner and JM Tanner (eds): Human Growth, Vol. 1, ( 2nd edition), pp. 153– 166. New York: Plenum, 1986. Evolutionary trends in primate growth and development. In CJ DeRousseau (ed.): Primate Life History and Evolution, pp. 89– 104. New York: Alan R. Liss, Inc., 1990. Dental development in apes and humans: a comment on Simpson, Lovejoy, and Meindl (1990) (with RL Anemone). Journal of Human Evolution, 22: 149– 153, 1992. Volume7, Issue31995Pages i-ii ReferencesRelatedInformation

The changes in body weight, body fat, lean body mass, and the efficiency index were studied in a sample of 80 obese males and females undergoing four different treatments, using two treatment components: an increase in dietary fiber, and energy expenditure through exercise. In both sexes there was a significant effect of exercise upon body weight and an improvement in the efficiency index. There was also a significant interaction between fiber and exercise in girls, but not in boys. This suggests that the eventual effect of dietary fiber is heightened by exercise, as corroborated by significant differences in some of the groups.

The relationship between nutritional status, measured by height for age, and cognition, measured by WISC full-scale IQ, was studied in a longitudinal sample of 459 urban Guatemalan children, aged 4-9 years, from a disadvantage community of the fringe of Guatemala City, examined annually over a 3 year period. Socioeconomic status (SES) was controlled by developing a composite index for each home. The mean IQ differed significantly from the lowest to the highest quartiles of stature, the difference between the two extreme quartiles being approximately 0.3 SD of IQ. There was a significant interaction between SES and stature in their effects on IQ. Whereas nutritional status and SES affected IQ in an additive fashion in the upper three SES quartiles, there was no difference in IQ attributible to stature among children from the most disadvantaged homes. This analysis indicates that the mild-to-moderate protein-energy malnutrition (defined by height for age) that is prevalent among children from disadvantaged environments in developing countries is significantly related to cognitive development. However, in the poorest homes, SES is seen as a more important determinant of cognitive development than stature.

This paper reports the physical growth and body composition from the first year of longitudinal study of 519 Guatemalan children, and their families, from a disadvantaged urban community consisting largely of refugees of the 1976 earthquake. Four cohorts are described, composed of children of 1,3,5, and 7 years at examination. The children are smaller, weigh less, and have reduced fat stores compared either to NCHS reference data or to upper SES Guatemalan children. Stature (or length) and head circumference deviate more from reference data than do triceps or upper arm muscle circumference. Greater deviations are found in the linear dimensions of males than of females. These children are the smallest yet described from Guatemala City, though they are slightly larger than available rural samples. This suggests a continuum of environmental effects acting upon the growth of children of differing socioeconomic levels.

The relationship of body composition to temperature regulation was studied in 196 black, white, and Puerto Rican neonates. Body composition was measured anthropometrically and rectal temperature taken on the first four days following birth. No differences in any variables were found among the three samples. Subjects with greater lean body mass displayed significantly higher means and significantly lower day-to-day variation in body temperature. Fatness, measured by skinfolds, was not related to either measurement of thermoregulatory ability.

American Journal of Physical AnthropologyVolume 67, Issue 1 p. 74-75 Book Review Mammalian thermogenesis. Edited by L. Girardier and M.J. Stock. New York: Chapman & Hall. 1983. viii + 359 pp., figures, tables, references, index. $80.00 (cloth) F. E. Johnston, F. E. Johnston Department of Anthropology University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaSearch for more papers by this author F. E. Johnston, F. E. Johnston Department of Anthropology University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaSearch for more papers by this author First published: May 1985 https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.1330670111AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onEmailFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume67, Issue1May 1985Pages 74-75 RelatedInformation

Childhood obesity has immediate and long-term health risks, There is an increased risk of disease and emotional stress associated with obesity during the growing years, but there are greater risks if obesity continues into adolescence and adulthood. There are insufficient data to quantify the association of childhood and adult obesity. Although obese adults are more likely to have been heavy as children, most overweight children are of normal weight as adults. Childhood obesity is frequently associated with an accelerated growth pattern characterized by increased lean body mass, greater stature, and more rapid maturation.

Interobserver reliabilities were determined for the triceps, biceps, subscapular, suprailiac, and abdominal skinfolds in 77 children, 9-24 months of age. Technical errors of measurement (replicate variances) and coefficients of variation were compared to data on 12-17-year-olds from the U.S. Health Examination Survey (HES) to 2.5-7-year-old Guatamalan children. Of the five skinfolds, the between-observer variation was not significantly different from zero in four; in the case of the biceps fold, F-ratio was significant at p less than .01. Errors of measurement are less for these data than for the HES or Guatemalan studies. This difference is attributed to the larger means of the older children and youth, as well as to the greater error of measurement shown to exist for larger skinfolds.

Supplementation of the diets of pregnant and nursing mothers in underdeveloped countries is sometimes criticized because more food for these women is seen as producing more body fat, shortened postpartum amenorrhea, and increased fertility. We argue that the link between body fat and shortened postpartum amenorrhea is based on a hypothesis that has not been corroborated. The critical-fat hypothesis is that menarche, maintenance of menstrual cycles, and the delay of menstruation after pregnancy are all determined by "critical" (causal) fat levels. Data refute the menarche-fat link outright. Evidence for the link between menstrual-cycle maintenance and fat is clouded by outside variables such as physical or emotional stress. Of special importance to postpartum amenorrhea is type and duration of lactation, with frequent, on-demand nursing of an unsupplemented infant being associated with longer amenorrhea. The nutrition-fat-fertility link, therefore, is uncorroborated and may be on the way to refutation. Considerable benefit can come from maternal diet-supplementation programs, and their curtailment on the basis of an uncorroborated hypothesis is both poor science and poor policy.

The ability of relative body weight and triceps skinfold thickness to indicate obesity in adolescents was analyzed in 169 males and 66 females, 12-17 years of age, whose percent body fat had been determined by underwater weighing. Using 25% body fat in males and 30% in females as the criterion for obesity, 31 males and 17 females were placed in this category. Of these, the triceps skinfold correctly identified 15 males and 4 females, and the relative weight identified 16 and 5, respectively. These anthropometric indicators, at the levels applied, are low in sensitivity (23-50%) but high in specificity (85-100%).

American Journal of Physical AnthropologyVolume 64, Issue 2 p. 204-205 Book Review Environmental factors in human growth and development. Banbury Report 11. Edited by V. R. Hunt, M. K. Smith, and D. Worth. Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. 1982. xx + 570 pp., figures, tables, references, indices. $62.50 (cloth) F. E. Johnston, F. E. Johnston Department of Anthropology University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaSearch for more papers by this author F. E. Johnston, F. E. Johnston Department of Anthropology University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaSearch for more papers by this author First published: June 1984 https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.1330640216AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume64, Issue2June 1984Pages 204-205 RelatedInformation

The mean fat cell diameter was determined from measurements of abdominal adipose cells, obtained during inguinal hernia repair, of 126 white and 95 black males ranging in age from 1 through 48 months of age. The mean diameters of black and white subjects did not differ significantly, suggesting that differences in fatness among adults of these two ethnic groups have their origin beyond the age range of this study. The mean fat cell diameter increased through the 6-8 month age group, decreased until the end of the first year, and then levelled off through 48 months of age. Comparison of this curve with those for the triceps, subscapular, abdominal, and suprailiac skinfolds of the same subjects showed generally parallel courses except for the triceps, which continued to increase in size after the means of fat cell diameters and the other skinfolds had levelled off. Our data indicate that changes in body fatness on the trunk at least in the first 4 years of life may be accounted for by changes in fat cell size.