Living in cities is not necessarily beneficial for growth of children, study finds

A global consortium of over 1,500 researchers and physicians, led by researchers at the Jameel Institute at Imperial College London, including principal investigator, Majid Ezzati, analysed the height and weight data of 71 million children and adolescents aged 5 to 19 years across urban and rural areas in 200 countries. Between 1990 and 2020 the study traced the development of children and adolescents, and found that the advantages of living in cities with regard to healthy growth had shrunk across the world. Published in Nature, the paper indicate that in 1990, school-aged children and adolescents who grew up in cities with opportunities for better education, nutrition, sports and recreation were a few inches taller and had higher BMI than their rural peers. By 2020, however, the BMI averages rose for most countries except sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia, where the BMI rose faster in rural areas.