Human growth is a sensitive measure of social change. South Africa has seen huge political, economic and social changes in the last decade. Is this reflected in the growth of the nation’s children? Research from Loughborough University, UK, looks at data from more than 3000 children born in Soweto and Johannesburg in 1990.

Under apartheid, there was a gradation of health and wellbeing from the prosperous whites to the impoverished blacks. Rural children were shorter and lighter than their urban peers and white children were taller and heavier than non-whites. Until transition, economic, health and education systems were heavily weighted in favour of whites and patterns of illness, death, growth and development within and between ethnic groups reflected these disparities. At the same time, the looming HIV pandemic threatened expectations of improved health, particularly amongst the black population. This research looks at the effect of post-apartheid economic and social changes on the growth and development of urban children.

Most (79 %) of the children in the study are black, 12 % are coloured and a few are white (6 %) or Indian (3 %). The research revealed that:

• The children’s birth weights show a gradation with white children being the heaviest at 3223 g, followed by black (3079 g), coloured (3023 g) and Indian children (2895 g).
• Surprisingly, differences in height and weight between whites and non-whites increased over time following transition.
• The growth of white children continues to be superior to that of their non-white peers and differences that existed at birth and during infancy have not diminished during childhood and early adolescence.
• Nearly one in five of the children in this study are stunted – a sign of persistent poor health and nutrition during infancy.

Recent research has linked stunting in childhood with obesity in older life, due to the phenomenon of ‘catch-up growth’. This in turn increases susceptibility to type II diabetes. South African children who are born small and then grow quickly have an increased risk of obesity and risk factors for diabetes. This is also related to urbanisation and the switch from a traditional low fat, high fibre diet and active lifestyle to a high fat, low fibre, high energy diet and sedentary lifestyle.

Laws that were introduced in the early 1990s to improve the quality of life of the previously disadvantaged, including free health care for all children under five years old, appear to have had little or no effect on the growth status of these children. The researcher points out that whilst political changes have been rapid since the end of apartheid, economic and social changes have been more gradual. These results show the need to ensure that positive changes at national and community level also have an effect on the individual child.

Source(s):
‘Physical growth in a transitional economy: the aftermath of South African apartheid’, Economics and Human Biology 1:29-42, by N. Cameron, 2003

Funded by: South African Medical Research Council, Anglo-American Children’s Fund, University of the Witwatersrand

id21 Research Highlight: 12 October 2004

Further Information:
Noël Cameron
Department of Human Sciences
Loughborough University
Loughborough
Leicestershire
LE11 3TU
UK

Tel: +44 (0)1509 223008
Fax: +44 (0)1509 223940
Contact the contributor: n.cameron@lboro.ac.uk

Loughborough University, UK

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