Abstract
From the anthropometric and biochemical viewpoint, the authors observed the growth at adolescence of the children in the urban and the rural district in the north-east part of Japan. At the present study, the growth of the children in the seaside of the same prefecture was observed from the same viewpoint as mentioned above. Besides, the nutritional survey was carried out on the children in the seaside as well as in the urban and the rural district. As results, anthropometric (body height and weight) and biochemical (alkaline phosphatase in the blood serum and the 24 hour excretion of creatinine and 17-ketosteroids) growth at adolescence of the children in the seaside was superior to that of the children in the rural district, and close upon that in the urban district. It seems to be true that spurt in growth at adolescence appears earliest in the children in the urban district and latest in the children in the rural district. It may be due to the difference of manners of life among the urban, the rural and the seaside district, and, of all things, the difference of the quantity and quality of the protein taken by them must be taken into consideration. In this case, we attach importance rather to. the quantity of protein. However, the conclusion that the children in the rural district do not get the optimal intake of protein, cannot be drawn from their later spurt in growth at adolescence as compared with that of the children in the urban and the seaside district.
