Tendência Secular De Crescimento Em Crianças Do Brasil: Evidências De Evolução Positiva Desde a Primeira Metade Do Século Xx
Year: 2012
Type: article
Abstract: IntroductionReliable records on the evolution of the secular growth trend in Brazil, as in other developing countries, are scarce. Brazilian data, based on measurements limited to schoolchildren and military personnel, or on inferences from national censuses, allow us to affirm that a positive secular trend occurred mainly from the second half of the 20th century onwards.ObjectivesSearch for information that would allow us to draw an overview of the secular growth trend since the beginning of the 20th century, a time of great transformations in Brazilian society. Casuistry and methodsThe material for analysis was obtained through research in the main Brazilian historical archives, such as those at the National Historical Museum, the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and the University of São Paulo. The most recent data set provided by national studies sponsored by the Foundation of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics and the Anthropometric Study of Brazilian Children carried out in Santo André, SP, were combined. Length-height measurements of children aged 1 to 12 years were compared from 1912 to 1996, which showed increases in all age groups.ResultsBetween 1912 and 1996 there were increases in length-height measurements in all age groups, in both sexes. For males, there was an increase of 8cm at the end of the first year of life and the largest increase, of 12.6cm, occurred at 7 years of age. For females, at the end of the first year of life the difference was 7 cm, and the maximum increase, 16.1 cm, occurred at 10 years of age.ConclusionFrom an auxological point of view, it is possible to affirm that there was a positive secular trend in growth that preceded the second half of the 20th century, a period known as the greatest development of Brazilian society. These findings show the importance of the economic and social transformations that occurred in Brazil at the beginning of the 20th century, often little remembered, which served as the basis for the development that occurred later.
Source: Revista de Ciências Médicas
Language: Portuguese
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W1939763989