Person:

Wyshak, Grace

Background: A vast literature has associated height with numerous factors, including biological, psychological, socioeconomic, anthropologic, genetic, environmental, and ecologic, among others. The aim of this study is to examine, among U.S. women, height factors focusing on health, income, education, occupation, social activities, religiosity and subjective well-being. Methods/Findings: Data are from the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) Observational Study. Participants are 93,676 relatively healthy women ages 49-79; 83% of whom are White, 17% Non-White. Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics, chi-square and multivariable covariance analyses. The mean height of the total sample is 63.67 inches. White women are significantly taller than Non-White women, mean heights 63.68 vs. 63.63 inches (p=0.0333). Among both Non-White and White women height is associated with social behavior, i.e. attendance at clubs/lodges/groups. Women who reported attendance ‘once a week or more often’ were taller than those who reported ‘none’ and ‘once to 3 times a month’. Means in inches are respectively for: White women--63.73 vs. 63.67 and 63.73 vs. 63.67, p=0.0027. p= 0.0298; Non-White women: 63.77 vs. 63.61 and 63.77 vs. 63.60, p=0.0050, P=0.0094. In both White and Non-White women, income, education and subjective well-being were not associated with height. However, other factors differed by race/ethnicity. Taller White women hold or have held managerial/ professional jobs--yes vs. no--63.70 vs. 63.66 inches; P=0.036; and given ‘a little’ strength and comfort from religion’ compared to ‘none’ and ‘a great deal’, 63.73 vs. 63.66 P=0.0418 and 63.73 vs. 63.67, P=0.0130. Taller Non-White women had better health—excellent or very good vs. good, fair or poor--63.70 vs. 63.59, P=0.0116. Conclusions: Further research in diverse populations is suggested by the new findings: being taller is associated with social activities –frequent attendance clubs/lodges/groups”, and with ‘a little’ vs. ‘none’ or ‘great deal’ of strength and comfort from religion.

Background: A vast literature has associated height with numerous factors, including biological, psychological, socioeconomic, anthropologic, genetic, environmental, and ecologic, among others. The aim of this study is to examine, among U.S. women, height factors focusing on health, income, education, occupation, social activities, religiosity and subjective well-being. Methods/Findings: Data are from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Observational Study. Participants are 93,676 relatively healthy women ages 49–79; 83% of whom are White, 17% Non-White. Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics, chi-square and multivariable covariance analyses. The mean height of the total sample is 63.67 inches. White women are significantly taller than Non-White women, mean heights 63.68 vs. 63.63 inches (p = 0.0333). Among both Non-White and White women height is associated with social behavior, i.e. attendance at clubs/lodges/groups. Women who reported attendance ‘once a week or more often’ were taller than those who reported ‘none’ and ‘once to 3 times a month’. Means in inches are respectively for: White women–63.73 vs. 63.67 and 63.73 vs. 63.67, p = 0.0027. p = 0.0298; Non-White women: 63.77 vs. 63.61 and 63.77 vs. 63.60, p = 0.0050, P = 0.0094. In both White and Non-White women, income, education and subjective well-being were not associated with height. However, other factors differed by race/ethnicity. Taller White women hold or have held managerial/professional jobs–yes vs. no–63.70 vs. 63.66 inches; P = 0.036; and given ‘a little’ strength and comfort from religion’ compared to ‘none’ and ‘a great deal’, 63.73 vs. 63.66 P = 0.0418 and 63.73 vs. 63.67, P = 0.0130. Taller Non-White women had better health—excellent or very good vs. good, fair or poor–63.70 vs. 63.59, P = 0.0116. Conclusions: Further research in diverse populations is suggested by the new findings: being taller is associated with social activities –frequent attendance clubs/lodges/groups”, and with ‘a little’ vs. ‘none’ or ‘great deal’ of strength and comfort from religion.

Background: A vast literature has associated height with numerous factors, including biological, psychological, socioeconomic, anthropologic, genetic, environmental, and ecologic, among others. The aim of this study is to examine, among U.S. women, height factors focusing on health, income, education, occupation, social activities, religiosity and subjective well-being. Methods/Findings: Data are from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Observational Study. Participants are 93,676 relatively healthy women ages 49–79; 83% of whom are White, 17% Non-White. Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics, chi-square and multivariable covariance analyses. The mean height of the total sample is 63.67 inches. White women are significantly taller than Non-White women, mean heights 63.68 vs. 63.63 inches (p = 0.0333). Among both Non-White and White women height is associated with social behavior, i.e. attendance at clubs/lodges/groups. Women who reported attendance ‘once a week or more often’ were taller than those who reported ‘none’ and ‘once to 3 times a month’. Means in inches are respectively for: White women–63.73 vs. 63.67 and 63.73 vs. 63.67, p = 0.0027. p = 0.0298; Non-White women: 63.77 vs. 63.61 and 63.77 vs. 63.60, p = 0.0050, P = 0.0094. In both White and Non-White women, income, education and subjective well-being were not associated with height. However, other factors differed by race/ethnicity. Taller White women hold or have held managerial/professional jobs–yes vs. no–63.70 vs. 63.66 inches; P = 0.036; and given ‘a little’ strength and comfort from religion’ compared to ‘none’ and ‘a great deal’, 63.73 vs. 63.66 P = 0.0418 and 63.73 vs. 63.67, P = 0.0130. Taller Non-White women had better health—excellent or very good vs. good, fair or poor–63.70 vs. 63.59, P = 0.0116. Conclusions: Further research in diverse populations is suggested by the new findings: being taller is associated with social activities –frequent attendance clubs/lodges/groups”, and with ‘a little’ vs. ‘none’ or ‘great deal’ of strength and comfort from religion.

Objective: It is widely believed among professionals and laity that genius is born and not made. However, the early and still-influential statistical studies of Frances Galton on the inheritance of genius have neither been supported nor definitively refuted. This study empirically assesses the hereditary transmission hypothesis. Methods: We collected family background data on 50 Nobel Prize laureates in literature, 31 Booker Prize awardees, 135 Pulitzer Prize winners, and 20 National Book and National Book Critics Circle awardees. We compared these for incidence of occupational inheritance (that is, same parent–child occupations) with a matching group of 392 eminent persons in noncreative occupations; for predominant occupation type, we also compared subject data with data for 560 high-IQ nonprizewinners, as well as with general population occupational data. Results: Incidence of one or both parents in the same occupation was only 1% for literary prizewinners but 16% for eminent noncreative persons (P < 0.0001). The predominant (76%) family background constellation for prizewinners consisted of parent–child sex congruency either in applied-equivalent occupations requiring language, persuasion, or artisan skills (P < 0.0001, compared with control subjects) or in unrelated occupations with unfulfilled wishes for creative expression. Conclusions: Outstanding literary prizewinners do not manifest direct inheritance of creativity from their parents; instead, parents and children of the same sex are predominantly in applied-equivalent or performance occupations and have unfulfilled creative wishes. We suggest that early developmental influences on child motivation involve identification and competition with the parent of the same sex.

The federal government has increased its activities directed toward health promotion and disease prevention. We carried out a pilot survey of a random sample of Massachusetts physicians and lawyers to obtain a profile of the personal health-promoting behaviors in the two professional groups.

BACKGROUND: This study sought to resolve conflicting views about whether physicians are especially prone to alcohol abuse. METHODS: Using an anonymous, mailed questionnaire on substance use, we surveyed 500 physicians, 510 pharmacists, and 974 of their students. The physicians and pharmacists were selected randomly from the state society's membership lists, and students selected were from local school lists. Follow-up surveys were sent to nonresponders at two-week intervals. RESULTS: The physicians and medical students did not drink especially heavily and were no more vulnerable to alcoholism than were their counterparts in pharmacy and other professions. Physicians differed from pharmacists in their style of drinking (greater frequency, smaller quantity), but not in total amount of alcohol consumed. Drinking habits among physicians were not associated with medical specialty or type of practice, but were positively related to gender (males drank more than females) and to age (older doctors were more apt to qualify as heavy drinkers than were younger doctors). CONCLUSIONS: Physicians were no more likely to abuse substances nonmedically than were other professionals. Any group in which alcohol use is nearly universal incurs a risk of abuse and impairment that cannot be ignored.

Women with melanoma and its precursor lesions, dysplastic naevi, have a higher prevalence of reproductive disorders than women without melanotic lesions. This association appears strongest among young women with dysplastic naevi and endometriosis. The purpose of this study was to evaluate patients with laparoscopy-confirmed endometriosis for the presence of dysplastic naevi. A total of 66 endometriosis patients and 35 controls completed a detailed questionnaire and underwent an extensive dermatological examination for the presence of dysplastic naevi. In all, 41% of patients aged < or = 32 years had dysplastic naevi, compared with 8% of controls (P = 0.038). In addition, 29% of patients with endometriosis reported a family history of melanoma compared with 10% of controls (P = 0.039). This study demonstrated an association between endometriosis and dysplastic naevi in younger women of reproductive age and found an associated family history of melanoma among endometriosis patients. These observations may be useful in the evaluation and care of young women by both gynaecologists and dermatologists.

YOUNG female ballet dancers attending professional schools or dancing in companies in which thinness is much admired restrict their food intake and are highly active. The unusual eating habits and levels of activity of some of these dancers have been related to lack of menstrual cycles.1 Amenorrhea and late menarche among girls and women with average activity levels are associated with undernutrition and weight loss in the range of 10 to 15 per cent of the normal weight for height; such weight loss apparently reduces the fat/lean ratio to less than a critical level. We report here on 89 young ballet dancers among whom there was a high incidence of primary amenorrhea, secondary amenorrhea, irregular cycles, and delayed menarche — an incidence correlated with excessive thinness.