Adolescent growth patterns in a northern Italian community

An assessment of the pattern of change in height, weight and subscapular skinfold thickness is made on the basis of a sample of children, 6-15 years of age, from the northern Italian city of Aosta. Simple examination of mean values across ages suggests that the timing of salient changes in the three growth variables is quite similar. The temporal pattern of change among obese individuals is comparable to that for normals, although the magnitude of change is greater among the obese. Trends in the variance of height and weight (corrected for height) across ages attest to a noticeable decline in the uniformity of the growth pattern during puberty. Geographic origin of parents appears to make a significant contribution to differences in height and weight among individuals in this sample. Namely, children whose parents were born in southern Italy tend to be shorter and heavier for the same height than those whose parents originated in northern Italy.