When you look at children these days, do you sometimes think it seems as though they are reaching their full height sooner than our generation? Well, it’s not your imagination: kids really are growing up faster than they used to. According to a new study, children are reaching full height sooner than in the past.
The new research, conducted by the University of Missouri Health School of Medicine, found that children born in the most recent century have bones that reach full maturity earlier — by nearly 10 months in girls and seven months in boys.
“Our findings show there is a ‘new normal’ for timing when kids’ skeletons will reach full maturity,” said Dana Duren, PhD, director of orthopaedic research at the Thompson Laboratory for Regenerative Orthopaedics.
Researchers analyzed radiographs of over 1,000 children born between 1915 and 2006, evaluating radiographs taken of the bones in the hands and wrists in order to pinpoint the exact timing of the beginning and ending of the developmental process known as epiphyseal fusion.
“We focused on epiphyseal fusion because it signals the end of the growth of the bone,” said principal investigator Duren. “It begins when the growth plate, which is cartilage at the end of the bone, starts to connect the epiphysis, or bone cap, to the long bone through small calcifications. Eventually, the growth plate completely calcifies and attaches, or fuses, to the long bone. When fusion is complete, so is the growth of that bone.”
The results concluded that the skeletons of children born in the 1990s reached fusion completion faster than children born in the 1930s — so yeah, kids are growing up faster than they used to.
What is the significance of these new findings? In addition to being just plain interesting, researchers hope this information is used to correctly time the clinical care of certain pediatric orthopaedic conditions — such as leg-length differences, scoliosis and the timing of using growth hormones.
“The timing for the treatments of these conditions is a critical component to a good outcome,” explained Mel Boeyer, MS, predoctoral orthopaedic research fellow and co-author of the study. “What this research shows us is physicians will need to start looking for the beginning of epiphyseal fusion sooner than they once thought.”
Unfortunately, the study didn’t address why children are reaching full height sooner than previous generations. However, Duren and her colleagues believe it may have to do with an increased exposure to environmental hormones as well as hormone mimickers.
So next time you make the joke that kids these days are growing up faster than they used to, you have some scientific evidence to back it up!