Height and Body Composition of Adolescents From the Apulia Region

Nowadays we observe a rapid change in body size of the Italian population, particularly of young people: a phenomenon resulting from the economic and demographic development of the country – such as the growing mobility of the population, and the improvement of nutritional and health standards. Lifestyles have also changed, and this positive trend is accompanied by an extensive use of private and public transport, in towns which are getting larger -, while youngsters’free time is increasingly devoted to television, computer and videogames. In the meantime, the nutritional habits of teenagers, conditioned by advertisings, are spoiled by an excessive use of junk food. Consequently, overweight and obesity are widespread, particularly in Southern Italy, as we were able to prove using a survey carried out a decade ago. At the same time, body height has increased in comparison to previous generations. These findings encouraged us to undertake a follow up to the earlier research, involving preadolescents and adolescents of the Apulia region. From these initial results - given the low number of subjects tested - we limit ourselves to make some suggestions, useful to the future development of this research. Comparing these data with those collected between 1997 and 2000, we observe an earlier growth spurt in MS males, who show an increase in body height, not evident in females. When High School students are concerned, the boys of the Scientific show an increase in height at lower ages, but then they place themselves between the CHS and the PI male values. The infl uence of family environment can be perceived in the successive age groups, when both male and female students of Barletta CHS show the advantages of a favorable cultural background, combined with better nutritional habits and an established sport activity. This research points out the urgency of promoting the importance of a correct nutrition and of an active life in the schools to prevent pathologies which could arise later in life, following a tendency to overweight in youth. By the end of our research, our subjects were quite interested in our observations, especially concerning their being overweight. They were embarrassed in front of their schoolmates to appear “fat” and laughable, criticized or not accepted by the group. Therefore we believe that there are multiple reasons to continue this study which addresses both health and psychological.