title: Secular trends in social class and sex differences in adult height.
abstract: Trends in social class and sex differences in adult mean height in Great Britain since the turn of the century were investigated using data from parents and offspring in the 1946 and 1958 British birth cohort studies (n = 50,000). There has been an increase of 1.09 cm per decade in the mean height of men but only 0.36 cm per decade in the mean height of women. On average men from non-manual origins were 1.97 cm taller than men from manual origins and the figure for women was 1.61 cm. Trends in class differences in height for those born between the beginning of the century and 1958 have been small; fluctuations have occurred over the period but were unsynchronized for men and women.
authors.affiliation: MRC National Survey of Health and Development, University College and Middlesex School of Medicine, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, London, UK.
authors.forename: D L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Kuh
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Power
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rodgers
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001827:Body Height; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009026:Mortality; D009790:Occupations; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012923:Social Class; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D006113:United Kingdom