International study concludes that the benefits of urban living for children and adolescents’ growth and development have diminished
The research, carried out by a consortium led by Imperial College London, involved more than 1,500 researchers and medical doctors.
English version: Diana Taborda
An international study published in “Nature”, with the participation of Cristina Padez, professor at the Department of Life Sciences, Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra (DCV | FCTUC) and coordinator of the Research Centre for Anthropology and Health, concluded that the benefits of urban living for children and adolescents’ growth and development have decreased in the 21st century.
The research was conducted in the scope of a consortium led by Imperial College London, involving over 1,500 researchers and medical doctors, who analysed data with measurements of height and weight from 71 million participants, to report the height and body-mass index (BMI) of children and adolescents aged 5–19 years of rural and urban areas in 200 countries and territories, from 1990 to 2020.
Cristina Padez, co-author of the study, explains that “In the 20th century, in almost all developed countries, children and adolescents living in urban areas were taller compared to those living in rural areas. This new study has revealed that in the 21st century, this advantage has diminished in most countries as a result of a rapid increase in the height of children and adolescents in rural areas”.
According to the FCTUC researcher, the study also focused on the BMI (body mass index), an indicator that measures height and weight to assess whether a person has a healthy weight, finding that, in 1990, on average, children living in cities had a slightly increased weight compared to children in rural areas. Padez adds that “by 2020, BMI increased slightly more in cities, except in south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where it increased more rapidly in rural areas. However, “throughout 30 years, the range between urban and rural BMI remained small”.
Although height and BMI have increased worldwide since 1990, the consortium found that the differences between urban and rural areas ranged widely between different countries of medium and low economic status, while small urban-rural differences remained stable in countries with more developed economies.
For Majid Ezzati, senior author of the study, "the question is not so much whether children live in cities or urban areas, but rather where the poor ones live and whether governments are addressing the growing inequalities by deploying initiatives such as monetary support and free school food programmes."
The researchers note that the pattern in sub-Saharan Africa is also a cause for concern. Boys living in rural areas have stabilised their height or even gone shorter throughout the past three decades, partly due to the nutritional and health crises that followed the structural adjustment policy in the 1980s.
Ezzati says that “this is a serious problem. Fluctuating growth in school-age children and adolescents is strongly linked to lifelong health problems, lower educational attainment and the huge cost of unfulfilled human potential”.
"Our findings should encourage policies that combat poverty and make nutritious food accessible to ensure that children and adolescents grow into adults with healthy and productive lives," he concludes.
CIAS researchers Aristides Machado-Rodrigues, Daniela Rodrigues and Helena Nogueira also collaborated in this study through data sharing.
The scientific article is available here.
