Izvorni znanstveni članak
Some Aspects of Secular Changes in Hungary over the Twentieth Century
É. B. Bodzsár
A. Zsákai
Sažetak
Growth and maturation are considered the most reliable indicators of health status.
Their progression rates in turn are strongly influenced by nutrition and socio-economic
status, a well-documented relationship. The pattern of the so-called positive secular
changes, i.e. the increase in size and earlier maturation, fits the populations' historical
model of economic development very well. The historical, political and economic
changes occurring in this century in Hungary have had a remarkably strong impact.
Until World War I Hungary was an agrarian part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy,
its ethnic composition was most variegated. Both World Wars caused fundamental
changes, namely in respect of post-war Hungary they were associated with marked territorial
losses and considerable population mobility. In interpreting the developmental
differences in the data collected before and after these wars one should take account of
the important facts that, in addition to the changes in socio-economic conditions, affected
the gene pool of the populations in Hungary. Over the past 100 years profound
changes have occurred in the mean body size, growth rate and timing of maturation of
the country’s population. This paper is a brief analytic summary of the tendencies observed
in adult stature, maturation and some socio-economic conditions. It also compares
the cohorts of sub-populations as reflected by the reviewed reports. In summarizing
the change in adult stature estimated by the data on recruits, soldiers and students
of higher education, it could be stated that adult mean stature had become markedly
taller in Hungary since the end of the fifties. However, any estimation of the absolute increment
and the exact rate is severely biased by the variable character of the samples'
representativeness. Similar problems arose in dealing with sexual maturation, because
the retrospective and status-quo methods of assessment were found incomparable. Nevertheless,
menarche was observed to have shifted to an appreciably younger age lately, a
trend that by the end of the 20th century seemed to have reached a more or less stable
level.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
28288
URI
Datum izdavanja:
16.12.2002.
Posjeta: 1.121 *