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The mountains of giants: an anthropometric survey of male youths in Bosnia and Herzegovina - PubMed

  • ️Sun Jan 01 2017

. 2017 Apr 12;4(4):161054.

doi: 10.1098/rsos.161054. eCollection 2017 Apr.

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The mountains of giants: an anthropometric survey of male youths in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Pavel Grasgruber et al. R Soc Open Sci. 2017.

Erratum in

Abstract

The aim of this anthropometric survey, conducted between 2015 and 2016 in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), was to map local geographical differences in male stature and some other anthropometric characteristics (sitting height, arm span). In addition, to investigate the main environmental factors influencing physical growth, the documented values of height would be compared with available nutritional and socioeconomic statistics. Anthropometric data were collected in 3192 boys aged approximately 18.3 years (17-20 years), from 97 schools in 37 towns. When corrected for population size in the examined regions, the average height of young males in BiH is 181.2 cm (181.4 cm in the Bosniak-Croat Federation, 180.9 cm in Republika Srpska). The regional variation is considerable-from 179.7 cm in the region of Doboj to 184.5 cm in the region of Trebinje. These results fill a long-term gap in the anthropological research of the Western Balkans and confirm older reports that the population of the Dinaric Alps is distinguished by extraordinary physical stature. Together with the Dutch, Montenegrins and Dalmatians, men from Herzegovina (183.4 cm) can be regarded as the tallest in the world. Because both nutritional standards and socioeconomic conditions are still deeply suboptimal, the most likely explanation of this exceptional height lies in specific genetic factors associated with the spread of Y haplogroup I-M170. The genetic potential for height in this region could then be the greatest in the world. Future studies should further elucidate the roots of this intriguing phenomenon, which touches an important aspect of human biodiversity.

Keywords: Bosnia and Herzegovina; Dinaric Alps; genetics; height; nutrition.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.

Political division of BiH and localities in which the measurements took place.

Figure 2.
Figure 2.

Regional averages of male height in Bosnia and Herzegovina (based on the self-reported place of residence), including average male height in individual 27 towns (table 2).

Figure 3.
Figure 3.

Relationship between male height and the ‘protein index’ (the ratio between high-quality proteins from dairy and pork, and low-quality proteins from wheat) in 46 countries of Europe and overseas (FAOSTAT, 1993–2013). Note: The graph contains updated values of height from our previous paper (see Appendix: Methods in Grasgruber et al. [18]) and recently updated/added data from Armenia (172.9 cm), Belgium (179.4 cm), Estonia (181.5 cm), Luxembourg (177.7 cm), Romania (174.9 cm), Serbia (181.2 cm) and Spain (177.1 cm). Protein consumption for Belgium and Luxembourg relates to the period 2000–2013, for Serbia and Montenegro to the period 2006–2013. The values of height from Australia, New Zealand and USA relate to the European (white) population.

Figure 4.
Figure 4.

(a) Relationship between male height and maize production (kg/per capita/year) in nine cantons of the Federation. (b) Relationship between male height and pork production (pigs per capita) in nine cantons of the Federation.

Figure 5.
Figure 5.

Relationship between average male height and the frequency of Y haplogroup I-M170 in 43 countries of Europe and USA. Note: The graph contains updated values of height (see figure 3). A separate regional sample of Herzegovina (70.9% I-M170; after Peričić et al. [7]) was added for an additional comparison.

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