the different parts of the country, and be influenced by many factors. Maya Bhalla and Srivatsava (6) found a declining trend in the menarcheal age of Kanpur girls. Amrita Bagga and Kulkarni (7) found a mean menarcheal age of 12.6 years in 366 Maharashtrian girls from Poona. They compared this with previous data from Maharashtrian girls and found a lowering of menarcheal age from 1960 onwards, ...

BACKGROUND Belief is that chronic disease prevalence is rising in Bangladesh since death from them has increased. We reviewed published cardiovascular (CVD) and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) studies between 1995 and 2010 and conducted a meta-analysis of disease prevalence. METHODS A systematic search of CVD and T2DM studies yielded 29 eligible studies (outcome: CVD only = 12, T2DM only = 9,...

Objectives Japanese and South Koreans have traditionally been shorter than Europeans, but have recently become appreciably taller. The aim was to quantify the secular trend patterns in height and weight growth in the two countries over 50 years using the SITAR growth curve model. Methods Data on mean height and weight by sex in 1-year age groups from 1 to 20 years were obtained by decade in Sou...

INTRODUCTION Despite tobacco control and health promotion efforts, the incidence rates of mouth cancer are increasing across most regions in India. Analysing the influence of age, time period and birth cohort on these secular trends can point towards underlying factors and help identify high-risk populations for improved cancer control programmes. METHODS We evaluated secular changes in mouth...

OBJECTIVE To describe secular trends on physical growth of children in China during the year of 1985-2005 and to analyze the urban-suburban-rural difference and its change. METHODS The measurements of height, weight and chest circumference obtained from two serial national cross-sectional surveys for children aged 0 to 7 years in China were used to analyze the secular trends, and the growth d...

Article history: Received 11 June 2015 Received in revised form 13 November 2015 Accepted 20 December 2015 Available online 9 January 2016 The g-loss predicted based on genetic selection is smaller than that observed across various ratio-scale measures of cognitive ability. The difference may result in part from the accumulation of deleterious mutations across generations, reducing g via their ...

INTRODUCTION Given its location on the Andes, the Northwest region of Argentina is geographically, socioeconomically, culturally, and biologically heterogeneous, and this is reflected on an infant mortality rate (IMR) that is higher than in any other Argentine region. OBJETIVE To estimate IMR, neonatal mortality rate (NMR), and post-neonatal mortality rate (PNMR), and to analyze their spatial...

In order to assess secular trends in growth of the Vietnamese population following a period of rapid economic growth, a follow-up study on physical growth and nutritional status of adults was carried out in a rural section of the Red River delta, Vietnam 30 years after the original study. The initial study in 1976 found that average height and weight of Vietnamese adults was similar to data col...

OBJECTIVE Congenital defects remain the second cause of perinatal and infant death and the third cause between the second and fifth years of life in Asturias. These anomalies generate substantial morbidity. The aim of the present study was to describe the population-based frequency of congenital defects in Asturias and their forms of presentation. METHODS Data from the population-based Regist...

PURPOSE To evaluate the number of published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) focusing on mechanical low back pain (MLBP) rehabilitation, the secular (i.e., long-term) trend, and the distribution of interventions studied. METHODS All included RCTs were extracted from all Cochrane systematic reviews focusing on rehabilitation therapies for MLBP, and two independent reviewers screened and ana...