A better standard of living influences Montenegrins to be taller, citizens of Berane were below average in the eighties
How the living conditions influenced the citizens of Berane, as part of one of the highest nations in the world, to be one centimeter lower than the established average height of Montenegrins from the beginning of the century (177 cm) during the 1980s, a new regional study published in the prestigious world journal International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health” (category Q1). Today, the average height of Berane citizens is 182.86 cm, which is almost seven centimeters higher, compared to the height of 175.99 cm, during the eighties.
For the purposes of this study, which aimed to more easily monitor the growth trend of Montenegrins, digitized data from the recruiting archives of the Yugoslav People's Army in the period from May 22, 1979 to December 14, 1987 were used, which included measurements of 8,740 adolescents from Berane, aged 18 years.
In this regional study, from the University of Montenegro participated full prof. Duško Bjelica, PhD, assistant prof. Jovan Gardašević, PhD and assistant prof. Bojan Mašanović, PhD, and from partner institutions from neighboring Serbia full prof. Zoran Milošević, PhD and assistant prof. Predrag Božić, PhD.
Professor Bjelica reminded that Montenegrins were the highest nation in the world at the beginning of the 20th century and that this fact has not changed much in the last 100 years because today Montenegrins are the second highest nation, right behind the Dutch. However, it remains unknown whether the growth trend was continuous or whether certain periods particularly affected the growth and development of Montenegrins, and there are no scientific studies that would help answer this question, so this study went in the direction of resolving this dilemma.
The unfavorable living conditions to which the people of the Western Balkans were exposed in the period between the two measurements are cited as the main reason for this situation, because the fact that a better standard of living affects the new generation is higher, so body height has become an indirect measure of living conditions in periods for which there is a lack of other data.
Professor Bjelica points out that Montenegrins took part in several wars (Balkan and World), followed by a period of state-building and living in still unfavorable conditions. It is noted in the literature that only in the late 1970s and early 1980s, all working households in Yugoslavia, of which Montenegro was an integral part, were electrified, while they were not yet fully connected to water supply and sewerage, and only a third had central heating, bathroom and toilet.
Assistant professor Bojan Mašanović pointed out that before the results obtained in this study, no study showed what was the nutritional status of Berane (malnutrition = 6.22%; normal weight = 87.30%; malnutrition = 6.14%; obesity = 0.33 % of the total population), which makes this study particularly significant. Assistant professor Mašanović adds that the nutritional status of the eighties was at an enviable level because today it is almost inconceivable that the number of overweight and obese is below 1%. He points out that the reason for that is the volume of physical activity, which increased until the mid-90s, when it reached its peak, after which the availability of information technologies influenced the physical activity of the general population to begin to decrease.
Assistant Professor Jovan Gardašević emphasizes that the strength of this study is that it shows a complete sample of the population of the municipality of Berane and gives us a clear picture of the situation in Berane on this issue during the eighties.
The full text of the scientific article, under the original title "Trajectories of Body Height, Body Weight, BMI, and Nutrition Status from 1979 to 1987: A Measurement-Based Analysis of 8740 Montenegrin Male Adolescents from the Municipality of Berane", is available at the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/10/5490
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