Chapter 1a: Height, Weight, Puberty and Adiposity

Secular trend of body height was analyzed using the results of six Nationalwide Anthropological Surveys in the Czech Republic (NAS) conducted in ten-years intervals from 1951 to 2001. These data documented, similarly as in other countries a continuing increase of body height, as a result of improving socio-economic conditions. Highest increase of body height has occurred especially during puberty, due to the shift of the start and of the individual stages of puberty to an earlier age. A shift to an earlier age was revealed also in the age of adiposity rebound (AR), by more than one year earlier in both genders. Along with these changes, adiposity evaluated by skinfolds has been increasing, starting with preschool children; body mass index (BMI) during the same period fluctuated insignificantly and has not revealed clearly changes of body composition. Along with that, an alarmingly increasing prevalence of obesity in children and adolescents has appeared as a result of imbalance between energy intake (EI - nutrition) and energy expenditure (EE) due to sedentarism starting early in life.

Keywords: Acceleration, Adiposity, Adolescents, Anthropological surveys, Body height, Body mass index (BMI), Children, Environment, Genetic factors, Growth, Growth velocity, Health menarche, Mutation, Obesity, Overweight, Puberty, Secular changes, Skinfolds, Weight, Weight-to-height proporcionality.