Diminishing benefits of urban living for children and adolescents’ growth and development
Anu Mishra, Bin Zhou, Andrea Rodriguez‐Martinez, Honor Bixby, Rosie Singleton, Rodrigo M. Carrillo‐Larco, Kate E. Sheffer, Christopher Paciorek, James E. Bennett, Victor P. F. Lhoste, Maria LC Iurilli, Mariachiara Di Cesare, James Bentham, Nowell H Phelps, Marisa K. Sophiea, Gretchen A Stevens, Goodarz Danaei, Melanie Cowan, Stefan Savin, Leanne M Riley, Edward W. Gregg, Wichai Aekplakorn, Noor Ani Ahmad, Jennifer L. Baker, Adela Chiriță-Emandi, Farshad Farzadfar, Günther Fink, Mirjam M. Heinen, Nayu Ikeda, André Pascal Kengne, Young‐Ho Khang, Tiina Laatikainen, Avula Laxmaiah, Jun Ma, Michele Monroy-Valle, Malay Kanti Mridha, Cristina Padez, Andrew Reynolds, Maroje Sorić, Gregor Starc, James P. Wirth, Leandra Abarca-Gómez, Ziad Abdeen, Shynar Abdrakhmanova, Suhaila Abdul Ghaffar, Hanan F Abdul Rahim, Zulfiya Abdurrahmonova, Niveen Abu-Rmeileh, Jamila Abubakar Garba, Benjamín Acosta-Cázares, Ishag Adam, Marzena Adamczyk, Robert J. Adams, Seth Adu‐Afarwuah, Kaosar Afsana, Shoaib Afzal, Valirie Ndip Agbor, Imelda Angeles‐Agdeppa, Javad Aghazadeh-Attari, Hassan Aguenaou, Carlos A. Aguilar‐Salinas, Charles Agyemang, Mohamad Hasnan Ahmad, Ali Ahmadi, Naser Ahmadi, Nastaran Ahmadi, Imran Ahmed, Soheir H. Ahmed, Wolfgang Ahrens, Gulmira Aitmurzaeva, Kamel Ajlouni, Hazzaa M. Al-Hazzaa, Badreya Al‐Lahou, Rajaa Al‐Raddadi, Huda Al Hourani, Nawal M. Al Qaoud, Monira Alarouj, Fadia AlBuhairan, Shahla AlDhukair, M. Aldwairji, Sylvia Alexius, Mohamed M. Ali, Abdullah Alkandari, Ala’a Alkerwi, Buthaina Alkhatib, Kristine H. Allin, Mar Álvarez‐Pedrerol, Eman Aly, Deepak Amarapurkar, Pilar Amiano Etxezarreta, John Amoah, Norbert Amougou, Philippe Amouyel, Lars Bo Andersen, Sigmund A. Anderssen, Odysseas Androutsos, Lars Ängquist, Ranjit Mohan Anjana, Alireza Ansari‐Moghaddam, Е. И. Ануфриева
Abstract
Abstract Optimal growth and development in childhood and adolescence is crucial for lifelong health and well-being 1–6 . Here we used data from 2,325 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight from 71 million participants, to report the height and body-mass index (BMI) of children and adolescents aged 5–19 years on the basis of rural and urban place of residence in 200 countries and territories from 1990 to 2020. In 1990, children and adolescents residing in cities were taller than their rural counterparts in all but a few high-income countries. By 2020, the urban height advantage became smaller in most countries, and in many high-income western countries it reversed into a small urban-based disadvantage. The exception was for boys in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa and in some countries in Oceania, south Asia and the region of central Asia, Middle East and north Africa. In these countries, successive cohorts of boys from rural places either did not gain height or possibly became shorter, and hence fell further behind their urban peers. The difference between the age-standardized mean BMI of children in urban and rural areas was <1.1 kg m –2 in the vast majority of countries. Within this small range, BMI increased slightly more in cities than in rural areas, except in south Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and some countries in central and eastern Europe. Our results show that in much of the world, the growth and developmental advantages of living in cities have diminished in the twenty-first century, whereas in much of sub-Saharan Africa they have amplified.