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chrisdh79 OP t1_je9at3x wrote

From the article: This is according to a new global analysis of trends in child and adolescent height and body mass index (BMI) led by Imperial College London and published in Nature.

The research, by a global consortium of more than 1500 researchers and physicians, analysed height and weight data from 71 million children and adolescents (aged 5 to 19 years) across urban and rural areas of 200 countries from 1990 to 2020.

Cities can provide a multitude of opportunities for better education, nutrition, sports and recreation, and healthcare that contributed to school-aged children and adolescents living in cities being taller than their rural counterparts in the 20th century in all but a few wealthy countries.

The new study found that in the 21st century, this urban height advantage shrank in most countries as a result of accelerating improvements in height for children and adolescents in rural areas.

The study also assessed children’s BMI - an indicator of whether they have a healthy weight for their height. The researchers found that on average children living in cities had a slightly higher BMI than children in rural areas in 1990. By 2020, BMI averages rose for most countries, albeit faster for urban children, except in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia, where BMI rose faster in rural areas.

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AskMoreQuestionsOk t1_je9eroo wrote

That’s interesting, growing up, I had always been under the impression that rural children would be healthier because of lack of pollution. I didn’t know there was a height advantage.

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roboninja t1_je9l6ix wrote

That could be due to the privilege of being from one of the wealthy countries they mentioned that did not follow this trend in the 20th century?

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Carbon140 t1_je9tz24 wrote

This is a global study, it's including poverty stricken farmers in africa/india/Indonesia etc. This trend was seen in "all but a few wealthy countries", so if you grew up in a wealthy country that provides decent access to schooling/nutrition etc for its more rural population then more than likely what you suggest is true.

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Foraning t1_jebhw38 wrote

At least in western Europe you tend to see more unhealthy habits in the countryside. They also live shorter lives on average.

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