title: Impact of war on growth patterns in school children in Croatia.
abstract: The objective of this paper is to present the growth patterns of school children in Osijek--the city which was exposed to severe attacks during the aggression on Croatia. The mean height and weight of Osijek schoolchildren aged 7 to 18 and the menarcheal age in girls in academic year 1995/96 were compared to the analogous data collected in 1980/81. The secular changes in height were heterogeneous. In older age groups from 12 in girls and 13 in boys, the mean height in 1995/96 increased markedly, whereas from 9 to 11 or 12, changes were undulating. In the youngest groups--at the age of 7 in both genders, and at 8 in boys, negative changes were observed. Markedly smaller height in this cohort was still pronounced in 1999/2000 when these children reached the age of 11. However, one year later (2000/01), at the age of 12, boys and girls caught up with their peers in the previous generations. These children during the war were approximately at the age of 2.5 to 4, a period when growth patterns are highly sensitive to adverse environmental influences. It might be possible that the emotional stress caused by a change of environment and separation from home, contributed to the deceleration of growth rate, i.e. the smaller height in a large part of childhood.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Public Health of Osijek-Baranja County, Osijek, Croatia.
authors.forename: Helga
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jovanović
authors.forename: Zivka
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Prebeg
authors.forename: Ivana
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Stanić
authors.forename: Gorka
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Vuletić
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001827:Body Height; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D017523:Croatia; D005260:Female; D006128:Growth; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014857:Warfare