Seasonal anthropometric cycles in a command economy: The case of Czechoslovakia, 1946-1966 [An article from: Economics and Human Biology]

This digital document is a journal article from Economics and Human Biology, published by Elsevier in 2006. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Anthropometric evidence is used to shed light on the living standards in early communist Czechoslovakia (1946-1966). Height and weight variation of adolescent boys exhibit a pattern that is inconsistent with that for a normal healthy population. The hypothesis is proposed that this pattern arose from periodic food supply shortages, most marked in the spring of each year. The boys in the sample display a remarkably slow growth during the spring but catch up over the summer.