Monatsschr Kinderheilkd 2002 · 150:1273–1277 DOI 10.1007/s00112-002-0570-4

Abstracts

Glücksburger Auxologie-Tage. Wissenschaftliche Tagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Auxologie 14.–17.November 2002 in Schloß Glücksburg, Schleswig-Holstein. Leitung: Michael Hermanussen

Does the value of the 97th BMI percentile of the reference population correspond to the agreed lower limit value for obesity? Bláha P1,Vignerová J2 1 Charles University Prague, Faculty of Science, Dept. of Anthropology and Human Genetics, Czech Republic; 2 National Institute of Public Health, Prague, Dept. of Biostatistics, Czech Republic Mainly the BMI is worldwide used for the assessment of the weight/ height ratio.As in children and adolescents, the BMI markedly change with age, BMI categories elaborated for adult populations cannot be used in this sub-population. Therefore, we use percentile charts from birth to the age of 18 years for the Czech population, which are based on the results of the Vth Nationwide Anthropological Survey of 1991. Subjects with a BMI above the 90th percentile are defined as overweight, those above the 97th percentile as obese. The objectivity of the critical 97th BMI percentile as the lower limit of obesity was tested in a group of 8800 Czech children and adolescents, aged 6 to 19 years who were considered obese. This group provided also baseline values for the definition of three grades of obesity according to BMI, in relation to age and sex, and data for the elaboration and presentation of a table “Marginal values of the BMI index defining three grades of obesity of the Czech child and adolescent population.” The 97th percentile of the reference population served as the lower limit of grade I obesity. The 50th percentile of the investigated obese sub-population served as the upper limit of grade I. Grade II comprises subjects between the 50th and 90th percentile of the obese sub-population. Grade III includes subjects with BMI values above the 90th percentile. This research is supported by the Internal Grant Agency MofH,CR, grant no.NB6597-3/2001.

Statistical model for individual growth monitoring and prediction Brabec M Department of Biostatistics, National Institute of Public Health, Czech Republic A statistical approach will be describe, applicable to model longitudinal growth data. The resulting model can be helpful for making shortterm predictions of growth. We will illustrate its performance on real data from a large semi-longitudinal ongoing Czech growth study. Statistically, the model is based on a state-space approach to time series of measurements taken on the same individual.We use Kalman filtering to be able to compute short-term predictions and smoothing (i.e. corrections for measurement error). Substantial feature is that the model is able to borrow certain information among individuals when estimating parameters, and hence it is able to use relatively short series

of measurements from semi-longitudinal data. Operationally, the model is “trained” on a large data set, but once its parameters are estimated, it can be applied on measurements of a particular individual – yielding predictions and their confidence intervals. From the practical point of view, it can be useful for a kind of “individual monitoring.” That is, for a formal examination of growth status and growth dynamics of an individual child, and for subsequent assessment of whether any intervention is needed.

Transformation of body and head shape in Moscow schoolchildren: secular aspects Godina EZ Institute and Museum of Anthropology, Moscow State University, Russia. Based on the results of several successive cross-sectional studies of Moscow schoolchildren, secular changes in body and head dimensions have been investigated. Data on children from 8 to 17 measured in the 1970’s, 1980’s and 1990’s (all in all about 10,000 individuals) have been compared. Some historical data on growth and development of children from the 1940’s and 1960’s have also been used for comparative purposes. The program included about 50 anthropometric measurements (length measurements, body diameters, circumferences, skinfold thickness, bone widths, head and face dimensions). Several indices were computed, including cephalic and body mass index (BMI). Stages of development of secondary sex characters were evaluated, as well as menarcheal age by status-quo method. For both sexes and for each age class, there are significant differences in such variables, as stature, between 1990’s and 1970’s, 1980’s and 1970’s (p<0,001), while the differences between 1990’s and 1980’s are statistically non-significant. Positive and highly significant differences (p<0.001) in body weight were typical only for boys of the first two series. No changes between 1980’s and 1990’s have been noted. For girls of the three series, no significant changes were revealed. Differences in chest circumference show reverse pattern of negative changes in the latest series both for the boys and the girls. There are noticeable changes in head and face measurements, which are expressed in more elongated head and face shape in contemporary children as compared to the data from the 1940’s and the 1960’s. Possible causes of debrachicephalization are discussed. The argument is that this is a part of astenization and leptosomization processes, which go along with secular changes. This trend is revealed not only by recent data but also in the course of human evolution (Khrissanfova, 2002). Distribution of somatotypes (evaluated by Shtefko-Ostrovsky method) show the increasing frequencies of the so-called “astenoid” (ectomorph) type in the latest series (particularly in the 1990’s). The analysis of intra-group variability has shown that among somatotypes the most pronounced secular Monatsschrift Kinderheilkunde 10•2002

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Abstracts changes are typical for children of the astenoid type. They have the highest values of canonic correlation coefficients between head and face, and body measurements. This may suggest a “resonance” response of this particular type to secular changes.

Final growth arrest in Bronze Age cremated human tibiae Hermanussen M, Kühl I* Aschauhof, Germany *Schleswig, Germany Unfavourable living conditions during childhood may not only lead to temporary growth arrest and short stature in adults, but may result in radiographically apparent transverse sclerotic zones in long bones (“growth arrest lines”,“Harris’s lines”). Harris’s lines are found in children, adolescents, and young adults, but in older individuals, tend do undergo resorption. Harris’s lines are also found in prehistoric bones and bone fragments.We present fragments of proximal tibiae, from 12 individuals that were identified amongst numerous human bone fragments from Bronze Age and pre-Roman Iron Age cremation sites. All fragments show Harris’s lines and also include the “fusion line”that occurs when the growth plate finally fuses. In some fragments, the sequences of Harris’s lines are astonishingly regular, with almost equidistant “steps” close to once every 4 to 5 mm. This distance is similar to a one year growth rate of the proximal tibial growth plate. I.e., the bone fragments suggest repeated growth disturbances at annual intervals, such as late winter famine, and may be considered natural records of late adolescent growth.Yet if this is true, these ancient records differ markedly from modern growth. Modern adolescents exhibit a pubertal growth spurt, and decelerate in growth thereafter for several years so that one would expect large spaces between the “pubertal” growth arrests lines, and gradually decreasing spaces until the growth plate fuses. We hypothesis that these Bronze Age and pre-Roman Iron Age people who lived under so poor an environmental condition that annual growth arrest lines developed, neither exhibited a pubertal growth spurt, nor did they exhibit the period of declining growth velocity that follows pubertal growth for several years in modern individuals. Absence of both of these phenomena might have contributed to the shortness of body stature in these people.

Short statured children show a retarded and tall children an accelerated bone age Hoepffner W, Gausche R, Keller E University Hospital for Children and Adolescents, Leipzig, Germany Aim of the study: Evaluation of the relations between chronological age (CA) and bone age (BA) in constitutionally short and tall children. Method: Records of children were collected from questions addressed to the CresNet®. Those children were recruited who showed a normal growth velocity and in whom the results of basic investigations were not suspicious for endocrine disorders or of disorders of bone age development.The height-SDS was =/<–1.88 (m=–2,37±0.43) respectively=/>1.88 SDS (m=2.49±0.52) according to the synthetic norm curves of Hermanussen.BA and BA-SDS were determined according to Greulich-Pyle. Results: Short stature: 53 boys and 52 girls with a CA between 1 and 18 years were included. Their mean CA was 9.28±4.38 years, their BA 8.16±4.43 years, respectively. The ratio of BA/CA was 0.85±0.15 and the BA-SDS was –1.42±1.36. Tall stature: The majority of the 38 boys and 35 girls were in their pubertal age. The CA of the children was 11.17±2.65 years and the BA was 12.7±2.7 years, while the ratio of BA/CA was 1.15±0.11 and the BA-SDS was 1.77±1.25. Conclusions: Short stature is associated with a tendency of retardation of BA, while tall stature is associated with an equal tendency of acceleration of BA. This represents the explanation of the biological phenomenon of the “regression to the mean.”

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Secular changes in growth of school-children in Poland Barbara Hulanicka Inst. Anthropology, Polish Acad. Sci., Kuznicza 35, Wroclaw 50951, Poland To study the secular changes in the body height of Polish children a computerised database has been created. The data recorded between 1888 and 2000 have been gathered from some 200 publications (majority in Polish). The aim of this presentation is a brief description of these data. The existing evidence shows that at the beginning of twenty century, the average height of children was the same for all the social strata, rich and poor alike and did not change in time. The changing pattern of growth of children and youth has been observed in Poland only during the last eighty years. According to the records, only in the twenties of the last century the children started to grow taller and their average height became greater.Analysis of the data gathered after World War II indicates that the environmental factors, less favourable in the country than in the cities, and different in various regions of Poland, differentiated growth of children. Indeed, children who grew in the cities and towns appeared to be taller than the one in the villages, and children from Wielkopolska-the western region of Poland were taller than the ones from the regions in Galicia, South East Poland. Prevalence of this phenomenon till the end of XX century is worth noticing.

CrescNet – an efficient Network for the Evaluation of the Development of Growth and Body Weight in Children Keller E University Hospital for Children and Adolescents, Leipzig, Germany Introduction: CrescNet represents a network for the early detection of disturbances of the development of growth and body weight. Since 1998 data of height and body weight of children from associated paediatricians were collected. Methods: The measured results of every single year (in 2001 from 67,337 children and adolescents) have been analysed and percentiles calculated. The most actual evaluation (from 2001) was compared with the well accepted data of the literature (Prader, Hesse, Zabransky, Kromeyer-Hauschild). In a second step curves were analysed. By a screening method suspicious data are detected and the paediatrician is informed about that. Results: The percentiles for height of the single years produced by CrescNet, do not change. Only if compared with older studies, a marked acceleration of the height of 10 to 14 years old children was observed. The data of CrescNet show an increase for body weight and consequently also for body mass index (BMI) especially for the high percentiles. Compared with older percentiles for body weight, the mean increase consists of about 10 kg. For adolescents the difference is nearly 24 kg when compared with Prader´s data. If single cases were analysed, in 6.6% (n=7997) of all the evaluated children additional measures seemed to be necessary. Conclusion: The data pool of CrescNet accomplishes the evaluation of single courses and also the visualisation of developmental trends for height and weight. CrescNet therefore, means a contribution for quality control in paediatric care.

Computer simulation of growth in pigs Knap PW PIC International Group, Ratsteich 31, 24837 Schleswig, Germany Body growth is one of the most important biological aspects of the commercial pig production sector. Pigs are slaughtered before the onset of puberty, commonly between 100 and 125 kg live weight at about half a year of age. Economic margins in pig production are often very

tight, and the sector relies increasingly on biological optimisation of the growth process to save production costs and maximise meat production efficiency. To do so, the supply of nutrients (energy, amino acids) and of environmental factors (climate, health, social conditions) must be matched to the resource requirements of the growing animal. Because growth is a dynamic process (with changing contributions of body maintenance, protein deposition and lipid deposition), these requirements change as the pig grows. To support keeping track of these changes, computer models have been developed that simulate these processes. This makes it possible to predict the result of changes in nutrition or other environmental factors for a given pig genotype (for example, a particular breed) at a given age, and to evaluate different scenarios. Further development of these nutrient-partitioning models has also made it possible to characterise the differences between genotypes (which can be large, due to selective breeding) and the way these influence growth and meat production efficiency. As a result, the optimum pig genotype for a given production system (with its particular supply of nutrients and other environmental factors) can be described, and the optimum feeding and housing regime can be specified.

There was no significant difference in sleep duration between term and preterm children (2nd Zürich Longitudinal Study); ● A generational trend covering a period of about 20 years (40 years by including some data from the 1st Zürich Longitudinal Study) in sleep duration was discovered. This trend amounts to a reduced average sleep duration of approximately 70 minutes at age 2, from the fifties to the nineties (40 minutes from 1975 to 1990). This decrease is essentially due a later bed time (a 35 minutes delay from the seventies to the nineties) with a practically unchanged wake up time. ● There are complex differences between the seventies and the nineties in parents and children attitudes with respect to sleep: these include resistance to go to bed and co-sleeping habits. Our findings indicate a better adjustment of the parents in recent years to the sleep needs of the children.

Changes in body composition in relation to increasing obesity Kromeyer-Hauschild K Institute of Human Genetics and Anthropology, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena

Alcohol is a known teratogen, and its adverse effects on behaviour and morphology have been documented in children, adolescents and adults exposed prenatally to alcohol. The expression of symptoms associated with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) is varied and includes reduced mathematical skills, impaired executive function, deficits of motor function, and changes in features of the face and brain. Theoretically, the particular phenotype expressed may be, in large part, determined by the timing of the insult. The human data required, however, to document the relationship are difficult to obtain. Thus, a major goal in this research is to establish better measures of the timing of alcohol exposure during pregnancy. In previous studies we have shown that prenatal exposure to alcohol disrupts the developing dermal ridges that are completely formed by 17 weeks gestational age. Thus, features of the dermatoglyphic system preserve information about the presence of prenatal insult(s) during this delimited period. In addition, the dermal ridges are laid down in a multidirectional temporal gradient that allows mapping of the timing of insult. Here we use (1) asymmetry in dermal ridge counts and patterns, and (2) quantification of irregularity in the spacing of ridges in a sample of patients diagnosed with FASD to construct a spatial-temporal map of alcohol exposure. The latter can potentially be used to uncover the relationship of timing of exposure to other associated behavioural or morphological features. Support: IHS, Seattle Foundation, and UW Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute.

Objective: Prevalence of obesity in Jena children determined using BMI has increased rapidly between 1985 and 1995. The main aim is to describe changes in body composition in relation to increasing obesity. This provides also the possibility to investigate the validity of BMI as a measure of adiposity. Methods: Data from Jena school children 7 to 14 years of age from two cross-sectional surveys (1985 and 1995) were analysed. Height, body weight, chest breadth and depth and skinfold thicknesses (biceps, triceps, subscapular, suprailiac) were measured using standard methods. From these measures BMI, sum of skinfolds and the Metric Index were calculated. To eliminate age effects for the analyses Z-Scores were used. In addition the subjects were subdivided according to the BMI-SDS in three groups (<–1 SDS; –1 SDS to +1 SDS; >+1 SDS). Results: Parallel to the increase in BMI, there has been a clear increase in the subcutaneous fat mass between 1985 and 1995. The changes in Metric Index show that children of Jena have a tendency to a greater corpulence in 1995 than pupils 10 years earlier. These changes are also found in the subgroups of BMI in both sexes. Conclusions: The increase in BMI in Jena children between 1985 and 1995 is generally attributed to the increase in adiposity. The similar trend in the subgroups indicates a general shift to greater fat mass. Prevention programmes are necessary to prevent the initial development of abnormal fat gain.

Sleep behaviour from birth to 16 years of age Molinari L Childrens Hospital, CH-8032 Zürich, Schweiz In the context of the 2nd Zürich Longitudinal Study and of the Zürich Generational Study extensive data on sleep duration and sleep behaviour were collected for nearly 500 subjects. In view of the paucity of sleep data covering the age range from birth to late adolescence we consider it very valuable that norms for sleep duration from birth to age 16 years could be established for use in clinical practice and parents counselling. Main findings of this study were: ● norms for total sleep duration, and separately for duration of night and of day sleep were obtained; ● The frequency of naps per day and per week could be determined as a function of age;

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Irregularities in the Dermatoglyphic System and Timing of Prenatal Exposure to Alcohol Newell-Morris L, Holman D, Stressguth A University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

Genetics of obesity Raab M, Hinney A, Fontenla Horro F, Hebebrand J Clinical Research Group of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Marburg Obesity can no longer be regarded simply as a cosmetic problem affecting certain individuals, because it is associated with many health problems, such as the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus, arterial hypertension, coronary heart disease, obstructive sleep apnea and various orthopedic affections. Overweight is the result of decreased physical activity and increased intake of food in modern societies combined with a preexisting genetic susceptibility. Over the past years substantial progress has been made in the molecular elucidation of monogenic forms of obesity in rodents as well as in humans, such as leptin deficiency, leptin receptor defects and mutations in the melanocortin 4 receptor. In addition, several quantitative trait loci have been mapped in mice. In humans, linkage studies have led to the identification of relevant chromosomal reMonatsschrift Kinderheilkunde 10•2002

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Abstracts gions, some of which have already been confirmed. Better understanding of molecular mechanisms of body weight regulation provides new hope for an effective drug treatment of obesity; leptin is an adipose-tissue derived satiety signal. Treatment of severely obese patients who suffer from leptin deficiency has resulted in a loss of body weight; however, patients with common obesity unfortunately do not respond to leptin treatment. In the light of this development, the melanocortinergic system, especially the centrally expressed melanocortin-4-receptor is introduced as a promising target of drug therapy.

A stature of one meter– How is the variability? Scheffler C Humanbiologie, Universitity of Potsdam, Germany Between march 2001 and march 2002, we investigated 240 children, aged between 2 1/2 and 4 years, in kindergartens of Berlin and Potsdam (Germany). Children of this age are one meter tall, on average, with a range between 89.3 cm and 113.4 cm, i.e. the range of body stature is 24,1 cm or 24,1%. This is equivalent of the variability of adult body stature. Differences of the developmental tempo cause the high variability of body stature of this age-group. Children who mature earlier, are generally taller than children who develop later. Ethnicity also influences the variability of stature, 50% of the children are of nonGerman origin, some populations are tall, some show short stature. Sitting height, the length between buttock and knee, lower leg and foot length, and the sitting width of the hip are important for ergonomically solutions. These measures vary in the same way as stature does. The high variability of the ergonomic measures in early childhood is important in terms of consequences for designing ergonomic chairs for schools and kindergartens. Today, the stature of children between 2 1/2 and 4 years extends over 3 classifications of chairs. Recently, we noticed even larger age ranges in kindergarten-groups, and thus, expect increasing ranges of stature and other body measures. This has immediate impact on ergonomic solutions, and should change our habits of aesthetics. Today’s uniformity of chairs should be abandoned, and we should get used to different sizes of chairs for the different sizes of children in the same room. So we can help developing healthy sitting in our schools and kindergartens.

Food tracks in childhood and adolescence Schultze-Pawlitschko V, Kersting M Forschungsinstitut für Kinderernährung, D-44225 Dortmund, Germany In recent years overweight has become a great health problem for children in industrial countries. Fat intake is discussed as a contributing factor. In 1985 the DONALD-Study (DOrtmunder Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed-Study) has been started at the Research Institute of Child Nutrition in Dortmund. In this study, for the participating children different parameters of nutrition have been observed every year between their second and eighteenth birthday. One of the observed parameters is the fat intake here calculated in relative amounts (%) of energy intake. The results are runs with maximal seventeen observations for each child. A measure of distance is defined for the runs of observations on two different children. With the resulting distance matrix a cluster analysis is carried out to identify children with similar habits of fat intake. We find four clusters. In cluster 1 are children with high fat intake. In their runs, nearly half of the observations is greater than the third quartil. The opposite is cluster 2. Half of the observations in these runs is smaller than the first quartil. Cluster 3 consists of children whose fat intakes lie between the median and the third quartil. But at the age of eleven or twelve years the fat intakes are much smaller than at the other ag-

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es. In cluster 4 the fat intake in childhood is indifferent, but at the beginning of adolescence it increases strongly. Later, it decreases again and lies under the median. Evaluations are going on.

Secular Trend of The Height in Czech Child Population – Nationwide Anthropological Survey 2002 Vignerová J.2, Bláha P.1 1 National Institute of Public Health, Prague, Dept. of Biostatistics, Czech Republic; 2 Charles University Prague, Faculty of Science, Dept. of Anthropology and Human Genetics, Czech Republic Growth standards, which are recommended for the child and adolescent population in the Czech Republic, were established on the basis of a series of continuous extensive anthropological surveys. Anthropological surveys – in particular of the child population – have a longstanding tradition in the Czech Republic. Since 1951, always in ten-year intervals, a total of six nationwide anthropological surveys of children and youth were implemented. The results of these surveys revealed among others that at present the positive secular trend as regards height in the group of adolescents is ceasing. That means that we cannot expect a further marked increase of mean values of height of the adult population. Since 1976 also a marked narrowing of the face occurred and prolongation and narrowing of the head (trend of debrachycephalization). This trend is more marked in the urban population. It is probable that this trend will also cease in conjunction with the positive secular trend of height. Results of research indicate also that the difference of basic bodily parameters between the urban and rural child population has disappeared. We assume that the results of the nationwide anthropological survey of 2001 will confirm the assumed arrest of the secular trend in height. These results will be available at the end of 2002. The first results will at the same time provide more accurate data on the ratio of obese children and adolescents in the Czech Republic. This research is supported by Internal grant Agency MofH of Czech Republic, grant No NJ 6792-3.

The influence of demographic changes in the rate of premature birth in Germany (comparison of the old and the new German countries) Voigt M1, Hesse V1, Wermke K2 1 Deutsches Zentrum für Wachstum, Entwicklung und Gesundheitsförderung im Kindes- und Jugendalter, Berlin; 2 Institut für Medizinische Anthropologie, ZHGB, Berlin The demographic structure of pregnant women in the old and the new German countries, is obviously related to the risk of premature birth (born before the 36th week of gestation). The aim of this investigation is to show that premature birth occurs depending on the distribution of age and body weight of the mothers at the beginning of their pregnancies, between 1995 and 1997. The data were taken from the German birth statistics (Perinatalerhebung) in 1995–1997. We obtained data from 1,815,318 singleton births from all German countries except for Baden-Württemberg. The epidemiological-statistical analysis of 238,041 neonates of the new, and 1,491,369 neonates of the old German countries, was performed at the Rechenzentrum of the University of Rostock. Significant differences in the rate of premature birth were found between the new and the old German countries in the years 1995–1997. In the new German countries, 6.7% of the infants were born prematurely, which is 0.6% less than in the old German countries (7.3%). The risk of prematurity strongly depends on age and body weight of the mothers.A maternal age of 31 years and more, significantly increases the rate of prematurity.In 1995–1997,the average age of par-

turition was 27.4 years (new countries),and 29.2 years (old countries).In 1997, 8.8% of the mothers were older than 34 years (new countries), respectively 16.1% of the mothers (old countries).As this trend continues, a further increase of premature births in Germany, is imminent.

The influence of maternal smoking during pregnancy on gestation time, and on the costs of perinatal medicine in Germany Voigt M1, Hesse V1, Wermke K2 1 Deutsches Zentrum für Wachstum, Entwicklung und Gesundheitsförderung im Kindes- und Jugendalter, Berlin; 2 Institut für Medizinische Anthropologie, ZHGB, Berlin The aim of the present investigation is to show the influence of maternal smoking during pregnancy on gestation time, and on intrauterine growth. An estimation of the costs for additional clinical care that are caused by smoking during pregnancy, will be given. Data of 180.437 smoking mothers were obtained from the German birth statistics (Perinatalerhebung) in 1995–1997.We compared the data with data obtained from 708,195 non-smoking mothers of the same period. Estimates of the costs were obtained from cost analysis of several German hospitals, and from 2 medical insurance companies. The epidemiological-statistical analysis of the data was performed at the Rechenzentrum of the University of Rostock. Smoking during pregnancy leads to significant reduction of gestation time, and fetal growth retardation. The risk of prematurity in smoking mothers is 8.6% compared to nonsmokers (6.7%). Depending on daily consumption of cigarettes, the risk of prematurity increases from 7.3% (1–5 cigarettes per day), to 11.9% (21 cigarettes per day, and more). The increased risk of prematurity in smoking mothers, leads to additional costs of more than 50 million EURO. These costs do not include maternal treatment costs for imminent premature birth, nor costs that are caused by additional surveillance and increased later morbidity of these children.

The Secular Increase of Stature – Why? Jesper L. Boldsen ADBOU, Southern Denmark University – Odense In most European countries mean male stature has increased some 10–15 cm over the last 150 years. Following early studies French studies it has always been assumed that high mean stature is an indicator of a high level of well-being and thus associated with economic prosperity and access to high quality food and medical care. This assumption finds much support in the close association between mean stature and gross national product that has been observed in many regions. However, a study from the 1990s indicates that this association is primarily due to time confounding and not a reflection of a truly causal relationship. It is found that secular changes of mean stature are basically independent of economic growth. This makes it necessary critically to investigate alternative hypotheses for the secular trend. Several other factors might have contributed to the increase of mean stature. It has been hypothesized that the breaking down of reproductive isolates mediated by a strong maternal effect on adult stature could explain part of the trend. Further, selective mortality, decreased load of infectious diseases, improved hygiene and psychological factors have played a role. Presently, no single factor seem to be able to explain all of the two standard deviations which mean stature has increased since the beginning of the 19th century, so it is concluded that modernity also on a biological level is a multi-factorial phenomenon.

The influence of socio-economic status on ossification A. Schmeling1, R. Schulz1, B. Danner2, F. W. Rösing3 1 Institut für Rechtsmedizin, Universitätsklinikum Charité, 10115 Berlin 2 Abteilung Biometrie und Medizinische Dokumentation, Universitätsklinikum, 89070 Ulm 3 Institut für Humangenetik und Anthropologie, Universitätsklinikum, 89070 Ulm On the background of a growing share of foreigners in the populations of European countries, age estimations of living individuals are becoming more and more important in criminal matters. If doubts have arisen regarding the age of a person suspected of a criminal offence, forensic age estimation is prompted by the need to ascertain whether the person concerned has reached the age of criminal responsibility and whether general criminal law in force for older juveniles or adults is to be applied. According to the recommendations of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Forensische Altersdiagnostik (study group on forensic age diagnostics), a combination of different methods should be used for age estimation in forensic cases. Evaluation of the degree of ossification of the bones of the hand is one of the main criteria in radiological age diagnostics. A problem related to such age diagnoses is the limited knowledge of regional variability of development rates.While it is commonly known by now that the impact of genetic/geographic factors is small, the impact of socio-economic development of a given country or region on childhood growth and development, i.e. the acceleration rate, has not been sufficiently determined. A broad data collection was performed in order to quantify this impact with the objective of more precise forensic conclusions through meta-processing of data from the studies on skeletal maturity carried out so far. Monatsschrift Kinderheilkunde 10•2002

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