Height depends on month of birth

Using a large human male population of 507,125, we find clear evidence for a dependence of body height at age 18 on birth month. Over 10 years there is a sinusoidal variation with a period of 1.0 year with maxima in spring and minima in autumn differing by 0.6 cm. Although global environmental facto...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 1998-02, Vol.391 (6669), p.754-755
Main Authors: Weber, Gerhard W, Prossinger, Hermann, Seidler, Horst
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Arthropods
Birds
Body height
Body Height - physiology
Cohort Studies
Environmental factors
Humans
Hypotheses
Male
Museums
Parasitology
Seasons
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Summary:Using a large human male population of 507,125, we find clear evidence for a dependence of body height at age 18 on birth month. Over 10 years there is a sinusoidal variation with a period of 1.0 year with maxima in spring and minima in autumn differing by 0.6 cm. Although global environmental factors are small and can be studied only with the help of sophisticated methods on very large sample sizes, they might offer insights into still undiscovered mechanisms of human development. This may provide empirical facts for clinical research on the pineal gland and melatonin.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/35781