ArticleObesity facts2016
From Undernutrition to Overnutrition: The Evolution of Overweight and Obesity among Young Men in Switzerland since the 19th Century.
Article in Obesity facts, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed.
- Trends in physical fitness performance and body mass index of Swiss military conscripts, 2006-2024: a cross-sectional study.BMJ open · 2026Article
- Association between pre-birth waist circumference and neonatal size and health in mother-newborn pairs in Lausanne, 1917-1921.PloS one · 2026Article
- Secular trends in physical growth, biological maturation, and intelligence in children and adolescents born between 1978 and 1993.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Update on the Obesity Epidemic: After the Sudden Rise, Is the Upward Trajectory Beginning to Flatten?Current obesity reports · 2023Review
- Unsupervised machine learning method for indirect estimation of reference intervals for chronic kidney disease in the Puerto Rican population.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Intergenerational transmission of height in a historical population: From taller mothers to larger offspring at birth (and as adults).PNAS nexus · 2023Article
- Weight Status Prediction Using a Neuron Network Based on Individual and Behavioral Data.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- The role of body height as a co-factor of excess weight in Switzerland.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2022Article
- Bergmann's rule is a "just-so" story of human body size.Journal of physiological anthropology · 2022Review
- A quantitative synthesis study on body mass index and associated factors among adult men and women in Switzerland.Journal of nutritional science · 2022Article
- Multiple measures derived from 3D photonic body scans improve predictions of fat and muscle mass in young Swiss men.PloS one · 2020Article
- Development of physical fitness performance in young Swiss men from 2006 to 2015.Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports · 2019Article
- Spatial Association of Food Sales in Supermarkets with the Mean BMI of Young Men: An Ecological Study.Nutrients · 2019Article
- Article
- Sugar Addiction: From Evolution to Revolution.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2018Review
- Evolutionary medicine: Why does prevalence of myopia significantly increase?Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2018Article
- Increasing variability of body mass and health correlates in Swiss conscripts, a possible role of relaxed natural selection?Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2018Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveThe global obesity epidemic continues, new approaches are needed to understand the causes. We analyzed data from an evolutionary perspective, stressing developmental plasticity.
methodsWe present diachronical height, weight, and BMI data for 702,902 Swiss male conscripts aged 18-20 years, a representative, standardized and unchanged data source.
resultsFrom 1875 to 1879, the height distribution was slightly left-skewed; 12.1% of the conscripts were underweight, overweight and obesity were rare. The BMI-to-height relationship was positive but not linear, and very short conscripts were particularly slim. Since the 1870s, Swiss conscripts became taller, a trend that markedly slowed in the 1990s. In contrast, weight increased in two distinct steps at the end of the 1980s and again after 2002. Since 2010, BMI did not increase but stabilized at a high level.
conclusionsThe body of young men adapted differently to varying living conditions over time: First, less investment in height and weight under conditions of undernutrition and food uncertainty; second, more investment in height under more stable nutritional conditions; third, development of obesity during conditions of plateaued height growth, overnutrition, and decreasing physical activity. This example contributes to the evaluation of hypotheses on human developmental plasticity.
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