Secular trends in the heights of women from the urban poor community of Hyderabad

Abstract

There are very few studies in India that have investigated secular trends in the heights and weights of adult women from the poorer socio-economic groups. Five hundred and twelve pairs of healthy mothers and daughters were enrolled and heights and weights recorded. The heights were not different in the two generations, but the daughters were lighter than the mothers. The number of mothers and daughters with heights under 145 cm were 35 and 34. If height corrections for mother's age is done, then it appears that the trend in this population is towards smaller size.