title: Secular changes in the physical development of students of the Medical University of Łódź.
abstract: This study analyses, using selected somatometric features, secular trend changes which have occurred over a quarter of a century in female and male students of the Medical University of Łódź. The study is based on the results of an anthropometric survey carried out among first-year students who commenced their studies in the academic years 1978/79 (240 females and 193 males), 1982/83 (347 females and 188 males), 1988/89 (178 females and 165 males) and 2003/04 (188 females and 77 males). The following features were examined in all participants in the survey: body height (B-v), the height of the lower body segment measured from a floor base to the crista iliaca at the point on the mid-axillary line (B-ic), shoulder width (a-a), intertrochanteric distance (tro-tro) and resting chest circumference. To compare average values Student's t-test was used with assumptions of equal and unequal variances. To gauge the magnitude of changes in specific features in the course of a quarter of a century a percentage difference in results was calculated for the years 2003/2004 and 1978/1979. The basis for the calculations was the initial value of a feature at the beginning of the period analysed. It was determined that in the 25-year period analysed (1978-2003) the young people commencing studies at the Medical University of Łódź exhibited an acceleration in the height of the lower body segment (B-ic) and of the intertrochanteric distance (tro-tro) and a deceleration in resting chest circumference. Additionally, an increase in shoulder width has been noted in female students; no significant intergenerational changes were noted in body height, although the last 15 years display certain symptoms of deceleration; there is an emerging tendency towards a blurring of the differences in body proportions between the sexes in the environment of the young people studying at the Medical University of Łódź.
authors.affiliation: School of Anthropology, University of Lodz, Łódź, Poland.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sitek
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Szkudlarek
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Antoszewski
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000886:Anthropometry; D001827:Body Height / Q000502:physiology; D049628:Body Size / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D048788:Growth and Development / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D011044:Poland; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012782:Shoulder / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013337:Students, Medical; D013909:Thorax / Q000033:anatomy & histology