An article published in the journal Nature, last Wednesday (3/29), revealed that children raised in rural areas are, for the first time in the last century, approaching a development similar to that of those raised in cities. Data from Brazil, however, still show a disparate maturation between those who grew up in the countryside and in the urban environment.
According to the study, while in the countryside there remains concern regarding malnutrition in the development of children and adolescents, in cities it is the growth of childhood obesity that draws the attention of health specialists.
In Brazil, there is a difference in height between one scenario and another. Girls raised in the city are on average 1 centimeter taller than girls who lived their early years in a rural context. In the case of boys, they are almost 2 centimeters taller when raised in an urban environment.
lower weight
There are also differences in body mass. Children in rural areas are, on average, up to two kilograms lighter than those raised in an urban environment, and although in both cases the BMI (body mass index, calculated by dividing height in centimeters by weight in kilograms) is considered healthy, in the case of children and young people from the countryside the number is closer to malnutrition.
The current difference, although persistent, shows a subtle decline. In the data collected in 1990, the difference in weight and height between children from one environment and another was twice as much as what is currently recorded.
International panorama
Led by Imperial College London, the research analyzed data from another 2,300 studies and followed the growth and body mass gain of 71 million children, taking 1990 and 2020 as reference years, in 194 countries around the world. .
At a global level, children raised in rural areas are reaching the same height and body mass averages as urban children and even surpassing them in some countries. The approximation, however, was not felt worldwide. In countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, large differences remain in favor of children who grew up in an urban environment.
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Advantage of the countryside
In countries with high economic development, such as the United Kingdom, Belgium and the Netherlands, the graphs show that there is a positive difference for children who were raised in the countryside, being a little taller and with a more adequate BMI than people from 5 to 19 years of urban context. The researchers believe that this is a consequence of a greater sedentary lifestyle of children in cities in these countries.
37 Brazilian institutions contributed to the research, especially federal universities, but also child care hospitals and even state health departments.
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The post Children in the countryside are smaller than those in cities in Brazil first appeared on Metropolises.
