BODY HEIGHT IN RELATION TO RURAL–URBAN MIGRATION IN POLAND

Abstract

SummaryA survey was conducted among 2800 students studying in Wrocław, Poland. The questionnaire included questions on the body height of the students and their parents, and place of residence and migration patterns of the students themselves, their parents and their grandparents. Body height in both students and their parents was positively correlated with the size of their place of residence. This was particularly true for male students and their fathers. Body height in students and parents from mobile families was not significantly different from that of their peers from non-mobile families. Body height in mobile individuals was generally between that of non-mobile individuals from rural areas and that of non-mobile individuals from large urban centres. Students from families that had migrated from smaller urban centres to larger ones were taller than students from families that had migrated from rural areas to urban centres. Body height in students was also correlated with the kind of migration that took place. In the students’ mothers, body height was higher if the maternal grandparents moved from smaller urban centres to larger urban centres than if the maternal grandparents moved from rural areas to urban centres. In female students, body height depended on whether their mothers had migrated from smaller places of residence to larger places of residence, but was not affected by the degree of migration. Intra-generational migration during the generation of the students’ grandparents was associated with increased body height in the students’ mothers. On the other hand, intergenerational migration during the generations of the students’ grandparents and parents was associated with increased body height in the students’ fathers and in female students. Body height was not a reliable indicator of whether an individual migrated from rural areas to Wrocław. Far more reliable indicators were the size of the place the student lived their whole life and whether the family had lived in an urban environment for at least two generations.