Socioeconomic differences in childhood growth trajectories: at what age do height inequalities emerge?
BACKGROUND
Socioeconomic differentials in adult height are frequently observed, but the age at which these inequalities emerge and the patterns they follow through childhood are unknown.


METHODS
Using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), height trajectories from birth to 10 years (N=12366) were modelled. Individual trajectories were estimated using mixed-effects models. Differences in trajectories by socioeconomic position (SEP) were investigated.


RESULTS
There was a clear gradient in birth length across categories of maternal education; average birth length in boys was 0.41 cm lower in the lowest maternal education category compared with the highest, which is 0.9% of the average birth length for the highest SEP category (equivalent results for girls 0.65 cm, 1.3%). Socioeconomic differences in childhood growth were small, and only resulted in minimal widening of the height inequality with increasing age. By the age of 10 years, the mean difference between children in the lowest and highest maternal education categories was 1.4 cm for boys and 1.7 cm for girls; similar proportionate differences to those seen at birth (1.0% for boys and 1.2% for girls). Patterns were the same when father's education or household occupational social class were used to measure SEP.


CONCLUSIONS
The socioeconomic differential in height during childhood in this cohort of children born in the UK in the 1990s arises largely through inequalities in birth length, with small increases in the inequality from differences in growth in later childhood.
Howe
Laura D
LD
MRC Centre for Causal Analyses in Translational Epidemiology, Oakfield House, Oakfield Grove, Bristol BS8 2BN, UK. laura.howe@bristol.ac.uk
Tilling
Kate
K
Galobardes
Bruna
B
Smith
George Davey
GD
Gunnell
David
D
Lawlor
Debbie A
DA
D001827:Body Height / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D012923:Social Class; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D006113:United Kingdom