Nick Mascie-Taylor

University of Cambridge | Cam · Division of Biological Anthropology

Corresponding Author

Objectives The health status of an individual is determined not only by their genetic background but also by their physical environment, social environment and access and use of the health care system. The Roma are one of the largest ethnic minority groups in Hungary. The majority of the Roma population live in poor conditions in segregated settlem...

To examine how much of the variation in weight-for-height (WHZ) z-scores were associated with age at which breastfeeding ceased and provision of fortified cow’s milk (Leche Purita Fortificada, LPF) commenced in a cohort of children studied from birth to 3 years of age. Longitudinal data were obtained from routine medical check-ups on 8373 children...

Objective The current study assessed changes in children and mothers’ nutritional status before and after raising Bangladeshi households out of extreme poverty through an income-generating activities (IGA) programme. Design Extreme poor households took part in the IGA programme for 2 years and recruitment took place over four waves in annual cycle...

Background: To see which socioeconomic and demographic variables associate with the nutritional status of under five-year old Nepalese children. This nationwide study provides a comprehensive analysis on of risk factors for childhood acute and chronic undernutrion. Methods: The Nepal Demographic and Health Survey 2006 was used as a cross sectional...

The double burden of malnutrition (DBM) and anaemia is a growing concern in developing countries. Using the cross-sectional Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey, 2011, 5763 mother–child pairs were examined. In households where the mother was overweight, 24.5% of children were stunted, 19.8% underweight, 9.3% wasted, and 51.7% anaemic. Significant r...

Objective: To examine the changes in children's weight-for-height at six monthly intervals between birth and three years old (3yo) from different counties across Chile and to determine if children had overweight or obesity, and if so, whether it was a transient or persistent change. Subjects and methods: Longitudinal data were obtained from rout...

Double burden of malnutrition (DBM) and anaemia is a growing concern in developing countries. 5,763 mother-child pairs were selected from a cross-sectional study (Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey, 2011) to examine DBM and anaemia in households. Overweight mothers had stunted (24.5%), underweight (19.8%), wasted (9.3%) and anaemic (51.7%) childr...

Objective The objectives of the study were to see how much of the variation in weight‐for‐height z‐scores (WHZ) and surface area/body mass ratio (SA/mass) were associated with regional (county) differences including mean temperature. Subjects and methods Longitudinal data were obtained from routine medical check‐ups on 8,373 children from nine cou...

The aim of this study was to test whether Body Mass Index (BMI), waist circumference, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, Forced Expiratory Volume (FEV 1 ) and Peak Expiratory Flow (PEF) vary in relation to social class at birth and adulthood, educational level and region of residence, and also with inter-generational social, educational and reg...

This paper reviews how migration, both geographical and social, impacts on variation in some human biological traits. Migration and mobility are considered in relation to anthropometric traits and indices, psychometric traits, health, disease and nutrition, temperature regulation and metabolism, mental health and gene flow. It is well known that mi...

Summary The nutritional status of under-five-year-old children is a sensitive indicator of a country’s health status as well as economic condition. The objectives of this study were to analyse trends in the nutritional status in Bangladeshi children over the period 1996–2007 and to examine the associations between nutritional and socioeconomic stat...

Background: A large number of biosocial variables have been shown to associate with age at menarche, but the results are inconsistent and differentiate not only between countries but within countries as well. Aim: This study examined age at menarche in a British national cohort in relation to 21 biosocial and anthropometric variables. Subjects and...

Anemia and micronutrient deficiencies are widespread in sub-Saharan Africa, but the impact of food fortification is still debated. The objective of this study was to estimate the iron and vitamin A status of preschool children (PSC) and women of reproductive age (WRA) in households consuming fortified oil and wheat flour. The survey was cross-secti...

Using a sample of the British National Child Development Study (NCDS), the regional variation, intra- and inter-generational migration and social mobility (migration between social classes) as well as the relationships between social and geographical intra- and inter-generational mobility within Britain were examined in relation to height, weight a...

Background: This paper analyzed the relationship between some indicators of reproductive history and body fatness in relation to the timing of the menopause transition in Hungarian women using survival analysis after controlling for birth cohort. Methods: Data on menstruation and reproductive history were collected during the personal interviews...

Objective: To analyse trends in maternal nutritional status in Bangladesh over a 12-year period and to examine the associations between nutritional status and socio-economic variables. Design: Maternal nutritional status indicators were height, weight and BMI. Socio-economic variables used were region, residency, education and occupation of the...

Abstract Background: A large number of biosocial variables have been shown to associate with age at menarche, but the results are inconsistent and differentiate not only between countries but within countries as well. Aim: This study examined age at menarche in a British national cohort in relation to 21 biosocial and anthropometric variables. Subj...

Background: Undernutrition among mothers and children is currently a major public health and development concern in Bangladesh. In literature relating to nutritional determinants, of particular interest is the geography, as regions with poor nutrition tend to pull down the overall nutritional status of the country. As such, reducing the regional g...

The aim of this study was to find out whether differences exist in the physical development, nutritional status and psychosomatic status of children living in deprived regions of Hungary compared with the Hungarian national reference values. The Hungarian government's decree No. 24/2003 created a complex indicator of social and economic conditions...

This paper analyses the secular changes in the body development patterns of Hungarian children between the 1910s and the beginning of the 2000s in relation to socioeconomic and demographic changes in the country. Individual growth data of children were available from two national growth studies (1983-86, 2003-06), while sample-size weighted means o...

Objectives: Very few studies have investigated whether spousal similarity for height is related to fertility. This study examined the relationship between mating for height and fertility after correction for spousal age, social class, education, and region. Methods: The data used were collected as part of the British National Child Development Stud...

Background: Positive assortative mating for education and social position has been widely reported in a number of countries, but very few studies have tested whether or not educational or social class homogamy is related to differential fertility. Aim: This study examined the relationship between educational and social class assortative mating a...

Skin pigmentation is one of the most variable phenotypic traits in humans. A non-synonymous substitution (rs1426654) in the third exon of SLC24A5 accounts for lighter skin in Europeans but not in East Asians. A previous genome-wide association study carried out in a heterogeneous sample of UK immigrants of South Asian descent suggested that this ge...

To provide nationally representative data on the prevalence of anaemia, vitamin A and Fe deficiencies among pre-school age children (pre-SAC) and non-pregnant women of reproductive age (WRA), and on vitamin B12 and folate deficiencies in WRA, and the influence of inflammation on their interpretation. A cross-sectional survey to measure anthropometr...

Summary The relationship between inter-generational social mobility of sons and daughters between 1958 and 1991 and biosocial variables, i.e. birth order, number of children in family, father's social class, region, educational attainment of child and father, educational and cognitive test scores (reading, mathematics, verbal and non-verbal IQ test...

Bangladesh is going through an epidemiological transition with large reductions in mortality due to acute, infectious, and parasitic diseases and increases in non-communicable, degenerative, and chronic diseases over the last 20 years. There is also evidence of an adult nutritional transition with increases in pre-obesity and obesity particularly i...

Objective: To determine whether a possession score or a poverty index best predicts undernutrition and anaemia in women of reproductive age (15-49 years; WRA) and children aged 6-59 months living in Côte d'Ivoire. Design: Anthropometric measurements were converted to Z-scores to assess stunting, wasting and underweight in children, and converted...

To investigate the long-term impact of health education in intestinal helminth infection control in rural Bangladesh. Longitudinal study to compare knowledge, awareness and practice for intestinal helminths between four communities: two receiving health education and two not receiving health education. Parents of 1497 children aged between 2 and 8...

Using a sample of 2090 British father and son pairs the relationships between social and geographical intra- and inter-generational mobility were examined in relation to height, weight and body mass index (BMI). There was much more social mobility than geographical (regional) migration. Social mobility and geographical migration were not independen...

Abstract Background Multiple micronutrient deficiencies, in particular iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) is a severe public health problem in Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR). Because of the practical difficulties encountered in improving the nutritional adequacy of traditional complementary foods and the limitations associated with the use o...

Using a sample of 2090 father and son pairs, the regional variation in height, weight and body mass index (BMI) with intra- and inter-generational migration within Britain was examined. Highly significant regional differences in means were found only for fathers. The overall mean height difference between regions ranged from about 2.7 cm to 3.1 cm,...

Miltefosine (target dose of 2.5 mg/kg/day for 28 days) is the recommended treatment for visceral leishmaniasis (kala-azar) in Bangladesh on the basis of data from India. We evaluated miltefosine in a phase IV trial of 977 patients in Bangladesh. At the six-month final follow up, 701 were cured. 24 showed initial treatment failure, and 95 showed tre...

Using a sample of 2090 father and son pairs, the extent of intra- and inter-generational social mobility (migration between social classes) was examined over a 42-year period in a British cohort in relation to height, weight and body mass index (BMI). The mean height difference between the highest and lowest social class decreased from about 4 cm i...

In the space of one generation major changes have begun to take place in the field of human reproduction. A rapid increase in the control of fertility and the understanding and treatment of sexual health issues have been accompanied by an emerging threat to reproductive function linked to increasing environmental pollution and dramatic changes in l...

Cambridge Studies in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology, n°59

Anthropometric indicators of abdominal obesity are associated with cardiovascular risk factors, such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia. Controversy remains regarding the best anthropometric indices for cardiovascular risk. Waist-to-height ratio has been reported to be an effective predictor of metabolic risks and it may be a better...

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether a cash-for-work programme during the annual food insecurity period in Bangladesh improved nutritional status in poor rural women and children. METHODS: The panel study involved a random sample of 895 households from over 50 000 enrolled in a cash-for-work programme between September and December 2007 and 921 similar...

To determine whether a cash-for-work programme during the annual food insecurity period in Bangladesh improved nutritional status in poor rural women and children. The panel study involved a random sample of 895 households from over 50,000 enrolled in a cash-for-work programme between September and December 2007 and 921 similar control households....

To determine how much of the variation in nutritional status of Bangladeshi children under 5 years old can be attributed to the socio-economic status of the family. Nutritional status used reference Z-scores of weight-for-age (WAZ), height-for-age (HAZ) and weight-for-height (WHZ). A 'possession score' was generated based on ownership of a radio, t...

To determine the extent of all forms of tobacco usage in adult Bangladeshis in relation to gender and locality. Three annual urban and rural cross-sectional surveys were carried out between 2001 and 2003 involving a total of 35,446 adults, of whom 54.3% were female and 51.0% were rural dwellers. Data were collected through interview using a structu...

Real differences in the duration of post-partum amenorrhoea for similar breastfeeding practices are observed in different populations. The present study investigated the role of energetics in the regulation of fertility among lactating women with high levels of physical activity and poor nutritional status. From 1996 to 1998, we carried out a longi...

In spite of acknowledged importance, no unified definition exists for central obesity. Several anthropometric indexes such as waist circumference, waist-hip ratio, waist-to-height ratio, conicity index etc, are being used. Cindex has been shown to correlate well with various cardiovascular risk factors associated with visceral fat accumulation in s...

The relationship between birthweight, sociodemographic variables and maternal anthropometry was examined in a sample from an inner urban area of Dhaka, Bangladesh. About 21% of babies were of low birthweight (LBW) using the World Health Organization cut-off of < 2500 g. LBW was more common in younger (< 20 years) and older (> 30 years) mothers, the...

Spatial patterns are described and analysed for the 84 most common surnames in England and Wales, as well as 16 others selected for various reasons. At least three-quarters of the surname frequencies show spatial structure and are heterogeneous over the area of study. While they do not exhibit clines extending over the entire area of study, they do...

A longitudinal study of 298 rural Bangladeshi infants found evidence of growth faltering starting at 3 months of age. Anthropometric status declined substantially in the first 2 years of life, with weight-for-height (WHZ) falling from - 0.49 to - 1.75, weight-for-age (WAZ) from - 1.18 to - 2.87 and height-for-age (HAZ) from - 1.00 to - 1.88. Higher...

In order to test the impact of Giardia and geohelminthic infection on infant growth faltering in Bangladesh, a randomised double-blind placebo controlled intervention of 36 weeks' duration was conducted in a rural community located 40 km northwest of Dhaka. Infants aged between 3 and 15 months were randomly assigned to either anti-Giardia and anthe...

To assess whether the Bangladesh Integrated Nutrition Programme (BINP) correctly identified which pregnant women should be enrolled in the food supplementation programme, whether supplementation commenced on time and was taken on a regular basis. A second objective was to determine whether food supplementation led to enhanced pregnancy weight gain...

The relationship between fat-free mass (FFM) and excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) has not been well researched because of the relatively small number of subjects studied. This study investigated the effects of FFM on EPOC and EPOC/maximum oxygen consumption. 250 Japanese male athletes between 16 and 21 years old from Nagasaki prefectu...

To determine whether maternal anthropometry predicted birth weight, and if so, to identify which cut-offs provided the best prediction of low birth weight (LBW) in a field situation. Community-based longitudinal study. A rural union of Bhaluka Upazila, Mymensingh, located 110 km north-west of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. A total of 1104 normot...

Use of BMI as a surrogate for body fat percentage is debatable and universal BMI cut-off points do not seem appropriate; lower cut-off points than currently recommended by WHO should be used in some populations, especially in Asia. The adult WHO BMI database indicates that, on average, women are more obese than men, while men are more likely to be...

This paper describes the main quality control methods for determining human observer measurement error and instrument error focusing on intra-observer and inter-observer technical error of measurements (TEMs) and relative TEM, and the coefficient of reliability (R). R values above 0.95 are indicative of small errors. To compare variances between di...

To examine the efficiency of the Bangladesh Integrated Nutritional Program (BINP) in identifying which infants should be supplemented, whether full supplementation was given for the stipulated period of time, and whether the correct exit criteria from the supplementation programme were used. To test whether targeted food supplementation of infants...

An adapted 'sense of coherence' scale short form (SOC-13) was administered in nine languages of Eritrea with a total of 265 participants (162 women and 103 men) in order to assess 'resilience' in quantitative terms. Statistical analysis yielded significant differences in SOC scores between the displaced and non-displaced: mean=54.84 (SD=6.48) in in...

A 27-month longitudinal study of 140 Bangladeshi mothers living in three tea gardens examined the effect of maternal factors (mother's age, number of live births, birth interval, and mother's work status) and sex of the infant on the duration and bout frequency of breastfeeding over 8-hr daytime periods. Prolonged breastfeeding of the infant was ob...

to assess the impact of prolonged displacement on the resilience of Eritrean mothers. an adapted SOC scale (short form) was administered. Complementary qualitative data were gathered from study participants' spontaneous reactions to and commentaries on the SOC scale. Displaced women's SOC scores were significantly less than those of the non-displac...

The Sense of Coherence scale, short form (SOC-13), was translated and adapted for use in nine languages of Eritrea with a total of 265 study participants (162 women and 103 men). While most items of the scale translated well, Item 10, which asked how often the respondent felt like a “sad sack” or “loser” in the past, presented a problem for all Eri...

To assess the total daily energy expenditure (TDEE), milk output and physical activity level (PAL) of chronically malnourished lactating women using the doubly labelled water method (DLW). Prospective, longitudinal study designed to assess the extent of malnutrition and energetics of lactating tea workers and nontea workers. North-east Bangladesh o...

Surnames were obtained for the second half of the 20th century from civil and religious marriage registers on fifteen Provençal-Italian and five Italian villages of Cuneo Province, Italy. To insert in the analysis an outward comparison, surnames from two Italian villages of Turin Province, one parish of Turin, one village of Alessandria Province an...

Analyses of height variation using the 1970 UK national cohort study (12,508 children at age 10 and 5470 at age 16) found clear evidence that children of higher socioeconomic status (as measured by social class, crowding, tenure, type of accommodation, income and receipt of government financial assistance) were on average taller than children of lo...

To investigate whether children's nutritional status, especially the extent of wasting [acute malnutrition as measured by weight-for-height Z (WHZ) score] is associated with arsenic contamination of drinking water, a survey was carried out in two discrete rural areas located less than 30 km southeast and northeast of Dhaka, the capital of Banglades...

This survey examined the prevalence and intensity of Strongyloides fuelleborni kellyi and other intestinal helminths in children 5 years of age or under living near Kanabea, Papua New Guinea. Of 179 samples, 27% of the children tested positive for Strongyloides, with 81% of these children being a year or less in age. Overall, 68% of the children ha...

The Hungarian National Growth Study comprises data on 39,035 children and youth aged 3-18 years. We examine the relationship between 15 body measurements and nine family background variables in this data set. After multiple regression analysis which removed curvilinear age effects, family size and population size of the place of residence showed co...

The earliest studies of human biological factors in migration in which a clear research design was employed date back to the early 20th century in the United States. Maurice Fishberg's study of Jewish migrants, published in 1905, antedated the classic study of Franz Boas initiated in 1908. There have been two main approaches. The first approach exa...

A WHO expert consultation addressed the debate about interpretation of recommended body-mass index (BMI) cut-off points for determining overweight and obesity in Asian populations, and considered whether population-specific cut-off points for BMI are necessary. They reviewed scientific evidence that suggests that Asian populations have different as...

A WHO expert consultation addressed the debate about interpretation of recommended body-mass index (BMI) cut-off points for determining overweight and obesity in Asian populations, and considered whether population-specific cut-off points for BMI are necessary. They reviewed scientific evidence that suggests that Asian populations have different as...

The impact of regular health education in improving knowledge, attitude and practices in the control of intestinal parasites was examined in four rural areas of Bangladesh; two areas received health education and the other two areas were controls. By the end of the 18-month study households receiving health education showed highly significant impro...

The shift from acute infectious and deficiency diseases to chronic noncommunicable diseases is not a simple transition but a complex and dynamic epidemiological process, with some diseases disappearing and others appearing or reemerging. The unabated pandemic of childhood and adulthood obesity and concomitant comorbidities are affecting both rich a...

Without Abstract

Human Biology 74.6 (2002) iv-xx Gabriel died on Tuesday, 27 August 2002, in his 91st year. With his passing Biological Anthropology has lost a very dedicated and professional colleague, who served the discipline in a great many ways for over 50 years. Gabriel (Gabe) was born in New Earswick, near York in England on 29 April 1912, where his father,...

Gabriel died on Tuesday 27 August 2002 in his 91st year. He had been a very committed member of the Editorial Board since January 1991 and he continued to review papers for the Journal with the same degree of impartiality and care until a week before he died.

Age-related patterns of body size and composition were studied in a cross-sectional sample of Japanese adults 18-59 years of age. Height, weight, the body mass index (BMI), body density (BD), percentage body fat (%Fat), fat mass (FM), fat-free mass (FFM), and the sum of seven skinfold thicknesses (SF) of 288 men and 552 women were considered. Body...

The betel-nut quid, a piece of areca nut chewed alone or mixed with tobacco and slaked lime wrapped in betel vine leaf, is widely used in Asian populations as a stimulant (due to the cholinergic agent, arecoline) or as a relaxant (due to arecaidine and guvacine). This study, which formed part of a larger project assessing the effect of energy expen...

Growth faltering has been well documented in children from Papua New Guinea, although there is evidence that broad processes of modernization, such as cash cropping, have resulted in increased body size. It is not clear, however, what household socioeconomic factors may be associated with larger body size in populations undergoing early stages of m...