title: From left-skewness to symmetry: how body-height distribution among Swiss conscripts has changed shape since the late 19th century.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  It is generally accepted that height distribution in modern populations is nearly symmetrical. However, it may deviate from symmetry when nutritional status is inadequate. Aim and subjects: This study provides an analysis of changes in the shape of the height distributions among Swiss conscripts (n = 267,829) over the past 130 years based on a highly representative, standardized and unchanged data source.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The analysed distributions from the 1870s-1890s conscription years are markedly left-skewed (-0.76 to -0.82), with short and very short men significantly over-represented. Standard deviation is 7.7 cm. In particular, the left tails of the late-19th- and early-20th-century distributions are very heavy. In the first half of the 20th century the first signs of a diminution of the heavy left tail are observable, by the 1970s the phenomenon disappears and height distribution becomes symmetrical; standard deviation is now 6.5 cm.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The relatively strong left-skewness during the late 19th and early 20th centuries may have been due to the interaction of a number of causes, chiefly malnutrition, a wider range in physical development at age 19 and widespread iodine deficiency.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Evolutionary Medicine, Institute of Anatomy and.
authors.forename: Kaspar
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Staub
authors.forename: Joël
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Floris
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Woitek
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rühli
mesh_terms: D001827:Body Height; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008889:Military Personnel; D009752:Nutritional Status; D013557:Switzerland; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Anthropometric history; distribution; iodine deficiency; malnutrition; stature