Relationship between Physical Development and Economic Growth in Childhood

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” Thus, it is a state in which physical, mental, and social aspects of well-being are all satisfied. For young children, health is important for sound growth, but in Japan physical, mental, and social aspects of well-being have all been satisfied perhaps only since the period of high economic growth. Studies have been conducted on the relationship between the economy and health, and between economic growth and physical growth, but few have focused on young children. In this study we built an evaluation chart based on the changes over time in the average height of 5-year-old children from 1950 to 2015 in 47 prefectures. The mean height growth data were then applied for each prefecture and we assessed how the tracking changed over time to investigate the relationship between physical growth and economic growth in young children. The possibility of applying Bergmann’s rule was also explored.