Growth studies in Turkey (1917−2007): an anthropological perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how economic, social, and cultural factors affect the growth process in an economically developing country, Turkey. Growth studies carried out in Turkey indicate that living in urban or rural areas affect children’s physical growth rate. Furthermore, social and economic milieu influence children’s physical growth. As a reflection of this fact, a positive secular trend can be observed in growth patterns accelerating after World War 2, the period when substantive attempts to integrate into the world trade system occurred. Children of families from upper socioeconomic classes grow at a faster rate than those from both low and middle socioeconomic classes and those living in rural regions. Additionally, when the physical growth rates of children from rural regions and those from shanty slums are compared, the growth rate in shanty slums proves greater. Yet, the opposite is true of villages that receive advanced health care services and have a developed economy. These studies also indicate that while growth rates of upper class Turkish children approach the norms of Europe and the USA, those of children from middle and lower classes fall well below them.

Keywords

• physical growth,human auxology,socioeconomic factors,secular trend,anthropometry,Turkey

References

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