Secular trend in stature in the Portuguese population (1904–2000) C.Padez Departamento de Antropologia, Universidade de Coimbra, 3000-056 Coimbra, Portugal Received 22 February 2001; in revised form 16 October 2002; accepted 30 October 2002 Summary. The records of height of 995 101 18-year-old Portuguese males were analysed as well as the relation between localities of the subject’s residence (districts) and final height. The sample includes all the Portuguese 18-year-old males born between 1966 and 1982 and examined between 1985 and 2000, in the north, centre and south of Portugal, representing all the social strata. Statistically significant differences (p  0:001) among the districts were found: males from Lisboa (172.79 cm) and Braga (172.67 cm), the most developed districts, are the tallest, and those from Madeira (170.67 cm), Castelo Branco, Leiria and Coimbra (171.31cm) are the shortest. Comparing to published data from 1904, a positive secular trend in height was found. The average increase was 8.93 cm, which yields a rate of 0.99 cm per decade. This positive trend must be related to the general improvement in the popula- tion’s standard living conditions that took place in Portugal mainly after the 1960s and 1970s, especially in terms of nutrition and the health system. However, taking into account the differences that still exist in mean height values between the districts, these results suggest that there are still great social inequalities in Portugal and the secular trend in height will continue for the Portuguese population in future decades. 1. Introduction Since the end of the 19th century a positive secular trend towards a taller adult stature can be found in almost every country in Europe, North America and Japan. Human adult height represents the end-product of a continuous and often non- additive interaction between genetic and environmental forces. The most important environmental factors to influence secular trends are nutrition and health. Indirect factors affecting nutrition (both qualitatively and quantitatively) and health are alterations in socio-economic living conditions, social and health care (preventive and curative), minimum income, quality of food preparation, better sanitary con- ditions, mass vaccination, and level of education (van Wieringen 1986, Tanner 1992, Hauspie et al. 1996, Bodzsa´r and Susanne 1998). Growth of a population can there- fore be used as a ‘mirror of conditions in society’ (Tanner 1986). In recent years, economic historians, led by Robert Fogel (1982), have used data on the heights of various populations over the last 150 years to trace their economic fortunes and even to predict their trends in mortality and morbidity. Adult height has been found to be a predictor of mortality from coronary heart disease, and to lesser extend other diseases (Waaler 1984, Barker et al. 1990). Some research has suggested that it is environmental influences during childhood that cause adult differences between population subgroups (Nystrom Peck and Lundberg 1995). Adult height reached a plateau during the mid-1980s in some developed European countries, which suggests that they are possibly about to achieve their full genetic potential or that their social conditions have ceased to improve. In the European countries the secular trend is more marked amongst the lower social classes than in the upper ones (Susanne and Heyne 1972, Low et al. 1981, 1982, Laska- Mierzejewska et al. 1982, Chinn et al. 1989, Vercauteren 1993). The aim of the ANNALS OF HUMAN BIOLOGY MAY–JUNE 2003, VOL. 30, NO. 3, 262–278 Annals of Human Biology ISSN 0301–4460 print/ISSN 1464–5033 online # 2003 Taylor & Francis Ltd http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals DOI: 10.1080/0301446031000064530