title: Genotype-environment relationships: an analysis of stature distribution curves during the last century in Italy.
abstract: The secular trend of stature in Italy from 1874 to 1960 has been examined using military records concerning nearly complete samples of males born in Italy in given years. The national mean value increased by nine cm (about one cm/decade) and the averages of the different Italian regions tend progressively to aggregate towards higher values (the north) and lower ones (the south). The rate of increase of stature was more or less constant up to subjects born in 1945, but in the period 1945-55 a very steep increase was observed. In more recent times, a clear slowing down has taken place both at national and regional level. The following moments around the mean were investigated: (1) variance--the national value has remained more or less constant and regional values pass from very diverse figures to very similar ones; (2) skewness--the initially negative national value has become slightly positive; in the regions, from very diverse negative values a close aggregation around zero is recently attained; (3) kurtosis--initial national hyperkurtosis has reduced to values typical of the Normal distribution; the same is true for regional figures which, moreover, have become closely aggregated. The increasing fit of stature distribution to the Normal distribution agrees with the hypothesis of an increasing expression of the genetic endowment in consequence of a progressive improvement in living conditions.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001827:Body Height; D002648:Child; D004777:Environment; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008889:Military Personnel; D011996:Records; D013223:Statistics as Topic