Some aspects of secular changes in Hungary over the twentieth century

Growth and maturation are considered the most reliable indicators of health status. Their progression rates in turn are strongly influenced by nutrition and socio-economic status, a well-documented relationship. The pattern of the so-called positive secular changes, i.e. the increase in size and earlier maturation, fits the populations' historical model of economic development very well. The historical, political and economic changes occurring in this century in Hungary have had a remarkably strong impact. Until World War I Hungary was an agrarian part of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, its ethnic composition was most variegated. Both World Wars caused fundamental changes, namely in respect of post-war Hungary they were associated with marked territorial losses and considerable population mobility. In interpreting the developmental differences in the data collected before and after these wars one should take account of the important facts that, in addition to the changes in socio-economic conditions, affected the gene pool of the populations in Hungary. Over the past 100 years profound changes have occurred in the mean body size, growth rate and timing of maturation of the country's population. This paper is a brief analytic summary of the tendencies observed in adult stature, maturation and some socio-economic conditions. It also compares the cohorts of sub-populations as reflected by the reviewed reports. In summarizing the change in adult stature estimated by the data on recruits, soldiers and students of higher education, it could be stated that adult mean stature had become markedly taller in Hungary since the end of the fifties. However, any estimation of the absolute increment and the exact rate is severely biased by the variable character of the samples' representativeness. Similar problems arose in dealing with sexual maturation, because the retrospective and status-quo methods of assessment were found incomparable. Nevertheless, menarche was observed to have shifted to an appreciably younger age lately, a trend that by the end of the 20th century seemed to have reached a more or less stable level.