Grandparental education, parental education and child height: evidence from Hong Kong’s “Children of 1997” birth cohort

• Published in: Annals of epidemiology Vol. 23; no. 8; pp. 475 - 484
• Main Authors: Kwok, Man Ki, PhD, Leung, Gabriel M., MD, Lam, Tai Hing, MD, Leung, Shirley S.L., MPH, Schooling, C. Mary, PhD
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.08.2013
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Body Height; Child; Child Development - physiology; Child, Preschool; Cohort Studies; Confidence Intervals; Education; Educational Status; Family Characteristics; Female; Growth; Height; Hong Kong; Humans; Infant; Intergenerational Relations; Internal Medicine; Male; Parents; Social Class; Socioeconomic position; Young Adult; Hong Kong; Height; Socioeconomic position; Growth; Education; Child; Cohort studies
• ISSN: 1047-2797; 1873-2585
• DOI: 10.1016/j.annepidem.2013.05.016

Abstract Purpose Adult height is the sum of growth during fetal, infancy, childhood, and puberty, controlled by different biological factors. In long-term developed Western populations, height is positively associated with socioeconomic position, but less clearly so in recently developing populations. We aimed to elucidate socioeconomic influences on height at different growth phases. Methods We examined the associations of parents' education and grandparents' education with birth weight and height gain z -scores during infancy (birth to <2 years), childhood (2 to <8 years), and puberty (8 to <14 years) adjusted for parents' height using generalized estimating equations in Hong Kong's “Children of 1997” birth cohort (n = 8264). Results Parents' education, but not grandparents', was positively associated with birth weight ( z -score, 0.07; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.01–0.12 for grade ≥12 compared with grade ≤9) and height gain during infancy (0.11; 95% CI, 0.05–0.18), adjusted for gender, gestational age, initial size, parity, parents' age, parents' birthplace, and parents' height. Conversely, similarly adjusted, grandparents' education, but not parents', was associated with height gain during childhood (0.11; 95% CI, 0.04–0.18). Conclusions Parental education was associated with fetal and infant, but not childhood, linear growth, suggesting the mechanism underlying socioeconomic influences on height at different growth phases may be contextually specific.