The small child: anthropometric and physical performance characteristics of short-for-age children growing in good and in poor socio-economic conditions M Henneberg 1 , GA Harrison 2 and G Brush 2 1 Department of Anatomical Sciences, Medical School, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia 5005; and 2 Institute of Biological Anthropology, University of Oxford, 58 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6QS, UK Objective: To ascertain whether individuals whose short stature is caused by poor living conditions differ in their other biological characteristics from those individuals who grow short, supposedly due to their genetic endowment, under favourable environmental conditions. Design: From the growth survey of nearly 4000 children of the `Cape Coloured' community aged 6±18 y half of whom lived in the middle-class suburbs of Cape Town [high socio-economic status (SES)], the other half who lived in poor rural settlements (low SES), boys and girls of similarly short stature were selected. Average body height by sex and age in each selected sample was close to the 5th percentile of height distribution among all high SES individuals surveyed. Setting: Cape Town and neighbouring rural settlements in South Africa. Subjects: Four thousand children of the Cape Coloured community aged 6±18 y. Among these were 109 high SES boys, 123 high SES girls, 302 low SES boys and 344 low SES girls selected for short stature study. Interventions: Anthropometric measurements in public schools with appropriate permissions. Results: Both short stature males and females from the low SES group tended to be signi®cantly (P < 0.05) different from the high SES group of comparable stature in having lower body weights, shorter limbs, longer trunks, narrower shoulders, hips and chests, thinner skinfolds, smaller arm circumferences, and were very notably weaker and had poorer neuromuscular reaction times. Biepicondylar widths and pulse rates were little different between groups. Conclusions: Genetically short children do differ in various anthropometric and functional traits from those who are small from environmental causes. Sponsorship: MRC (South Africa), Foundation for Research Development and the Universities of Cape Town and the Witwatersrand. Descriptors: children; nutritional status; height; weight; Africa Keywords: growth; African children; environmental quality Introduction There is a vast amount of literature demonstrating clearly that children growing in poor circumstances are shorter in stature at all ages than those growing in relatively af¯uent conditions. Clearly there is a correlation existing between the degree of deprivation and the degree to which stature is reduced (Bielicki & Welon, 1982; Jedlin Âska, 1985; Rosen- baum et al, 1985). On the other hand stature variation is usually highly heritable [heritability coef®cient estimates range from 56±99% (Cavalli-Sforza & Bodmer, 1971; Susanne, 1971; Mueller, 1976; Roberts et al, 1978)]. This raises the question as to whether individuals whose short stature is caused by environmental deprivation differ in other biological characteristics from those whose shortness is due to their genetic endowment acting under favourable environmental conditions. In 1989 GH Beaton observed that ` ... by focussing on smallness as the measure of malnutrition, we have excluded ... other routes of effect of undernutrition.' (p 871). Undernutrition is but one of the many aspects of poor environment in which some indivi- duals grow. Short stature, per se, does not constitute a handicap unless it is one of the products of generally poor growth status affecting functional characteristics of indivi- duals, especially those related to the ability to work and act in social situations. In order to attempt to answer the question of biological differences between `genetically short af¯uent' and `envir- onmentally short poor' we have analysed observations on body weight, trunk dimensions, limb length, bony width, arm circumference, skinfolds, grip strength, the speed of neuromuscular reaction to a visual stimulus, resting and post exercise pulse rates of short `Cape Coloured' children who were matched for stature living in contrasting socio- economic conditions. Material and methods The material has been collected during a larger mixed- longitudinal study from 1987 to 1990 (Henneberg & Louw, 1990, 1993, 1997). Study samples were drawn by means of double selection to provide maximum contrast in the socio- economic status (SES) of children. In the ®rst stage the poorest and the most af¯uent districts in which `Cape Correspondence: Prof M Henneberg. Received 16 September 1997; revised 10 November 1997; accepted 22 November 1997 European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1998) 52, 286±291 ß 1998 Stockton Press. All rights reserved 0954±3007/98 $12.00