A comparison of cranial fluctuating asymmetry between the two sexes in a Joseon Dynasty population of Korea.

SUMMARY: Cranial fluctuating asymmetry (FA) has been used to examine developmental stress levels in various populations. In bioarchaeological studies, developmental stress can be an important factor for inferring standard of living in a population. However, the crania of a Joseon Dynasty population have only been studied in terms of its morphological characteristics. In this regard, the cranial FA of the two sexes from a Joseon Dynasty population of Korea were compared here for examining their aspects of living conditions in relation to developmental stress and socio-cultural factors. In this study, 77 individuals (39 males and 38 females) who belong to the 15th to the early-20th centuries from Seoul and Gyeonggi province in Korea were investigated. Nineteen three-dimensional landmarks on the vault and basicranium were collected using MicroScribe G2X. The coordinate data were aligned into a common coordinate plane by Procrustes least-squares superimposition. Procrustes ANOVA was adopted to evaluate FA at a population level. The FA of males and females were compared with t-test using SPSS 18. There was statistically insignificant difference in FA between the two sexes in the Joseon Dynasty population. The result was interpreted to reflect both relatively high developmental stress and sex-related discrimination in the population. It was postulated that relatively high developmental stress could increase difference in FA between the two sexes in the prenatal term compared to the postnatal term because sex-related discrimination cannot be practiced before birth and males have lower stress resistance than females. Then, the difference between the two sexes in the cranial FA could be decreased during postnatal development related to sex-related discrimination, resulting in insignificant FA difference of the two sexes in spite of high developmental stress of the Joseon Dynasty population. The results will be useful for comparing and reconstructing living conditions of ancient Korean populations.

Degenerative joint diseases and enthesopathies in a Joseon Dynasty population from Korea.

The purpose of this research is to examine whether degenerative joint diseases (DJD) and enthesopathies can be used in conjunction in research that aims to understand the activity levels of past populations. To examine this, the relationship between DJD and enthesopathies needs to be explored while taking different peripheral joints and types of entheses into account. In addition, the present research aims to examine the frequency of DJD and enthesopathies in the Joseon Dynasty population of Korea with comparisons with data in other skeletal series of similar dates. In this research, 173 individuals who had been interred in Eunpyeong Cemetery (Seoul, Korea, mid-15th-early 20th centuries) were analyzed. The occurrence of DJD and enthesopathies at six peripheral joints - the shoulder, elbow, wrist, hip, knee, and ankle - were compared. The results presented in this study suggest that DJD and enthesopathies are positively correlated in specific joints. The overall pattern of DJD and enthesopathies by sex was not found to be aligned with each other. While both markers were strongly associated with age in similar joints and bone elements, differences by sex showed a significant association in only some enthesopathies. This result suggests that DJD and enthesopathies react in different ways to variable etiological factors because they have different levels of vulnerability to various causes. Therefore, the distribution and pattern of DJD and enthesopathies should be discussed with caution when they are used together as activity markers. In addition, the population from Eunpyeong Cemetery seems not to have experienced a great deal of habitual stress.

No significant difference in the levels of dental fluctuating asymmetry between hypoplastic and non-hypoplastic skeletal groups from the Joseon Dynasty (mid 15th-early 20th century), South Korea.

OBJECTIVES: As part of efforts to explore the relationship between linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH) and dental fluctuating asymmetry (DFA), DFA levels were compared between a hypoplastic group and a non-hypoplastic group. Since both LEH and DFA are pathological indicators of environmental stress which are represented by teeth, it was hypothesized that the hypoplastic group would exhibit higher levels of DFA than the non-hypoplastic group. DESIGN: Total of 136 sets of Korean skeletal remains from the Joseon Dynasty (mid 15th-early 20th century, South Korea) were used. To test the hypothesis, DFA levels of both groups were compared by two-way ANOVA after examining some issues related to FA research such as measurement error, type of asymmetry, and size dependence. RESULT: Contrary to the anticipations of many relavant studies, the hypothesis of this study was not supported (F=3.469, p=0.063). That is, the DFA levels of the two groups did not differ significantly, which implies that LEH and DFA do not occur concordantly. CONCLUSION: As to the reason for the result of the present study, it was speculated that (1) different kinds and/or degrees of stressors may influence the occurrence of LEH and DFA, or (2) traditional measuring methods used for DFA research may not reflect true DFA levels. Based on this study, it is recommended that both LEH and DFA should be utilized and reported independently in future research on the environmental stress and nutritional status of human populations.

The growth status of North Korean refugee children and adolescents from 6 to 19 years of age.

This paper is a study of the growth status of 1406 North Korean refugee children and adolescents who were between 6 and 19.9 years of age at the time of their arrival in South Korea, during the years 1995-2007, as compared with that of their South Korean peers. Refugee children of 6.5 years of age were found to be taller and heavier than North Korean children of the same age residing in North Korea. On the other hand, all of the North Korean refugee boys and girls were shorter and weighed less than their South Korean peers. This disparity in height and weight growth status was smallest during the pre-teen years and then began to increase, peaking in the mid-teen years and decreasing in the late-teen years, with the late-teen disparity being still larger than the pre-teen one. This pattern of disparity suggests that the greatest gap observed in mid-teen years was caused by differences in growth tempos during the period of pubertal growth and that the final differences in body size between the North and South Korean adults were partly pubertal in origin. The mean height-for-age z-score (HAZ) and weight-for-age z-score (WAZ) of the North Korean refugee boys were significantly lower than those of the North Korean refugee girls, indicating that the girls' growth status was better than that of the boys. In addition, the WAZ of the North Korean refugee children and adolescents was higher than their HAZ, indicating that their growth in height is poorer than that of weight. A regression analysis revealed that the mean HAZ of North Korean refugee children and adolescents born between 1995 and 1999, a period during which North Korea suffered a famine, was not statistically significantly lower than that of those born earlier. The time that the North Korean children and adolescents spent outside of North Korea before entering South Korea was discovered to have had a positive effect on their growth status, suggesting that they experienced some degree of catch-up growth while staying in transit countries. Among all the available socio-demographic variables, only four - sex, age at escape and measurement, time interval between escape from North Korea and arrival in South Korea, and year of escape - were found to be significant factors in their growth status.

Variations in the birth-season effects on height attainment in the two Koreas.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have reported a consistent link between birth season and height in northern and southern hemisphere humans, creating a pattern in which spring birth cohorts are the tallest, and autumn birth cohorts are the shortest. AIM: A previous study on heights of children born during the North Korean famine of the 1990s revealed a pattern inconsistent with other studies, suggesting that adverse living conditions during the famine may have caused the atypical result. This paper investigates this issue by comparing the anomalous finding to other Korean data. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The present study investigated birth season-height patterns in South Koreans and North Koreans born during the famine as well as in pre- and post-famine periods, and Colonial Koreans raised prior to the political separation of the Korean peninsula by making use of height error bars classified by birth season. The study was limited to the Korean peninsula, thus genetic factors are unlikely to have had an impact on the results. RESULTS: With the exception of North Koreans born during the famine, all groups followed the same birth season-height pattern, a pattern consistent with other globally reported patterns. This suggests that adverse conditions during the famine are likely factors resulting in the anomalous birth season-height pattern in North Koreans born during the famine. CONCLUSION: Birth season-height patterns of Koreans follow the typical global pattern, but extreme environmental circumstances during the North Korean food crisis appear to have significantly disrupted that pattern.

Recent growth of children in the two Koreas: a meta-analysis.

Height differences between the two Koreas were injected into the U.S. presidential debate. The purpose of this article is to report briefly the height, weight, and body mass index (BMI) differences between North and South Korean children by using previous sources and new data. This study employs South Korean data published by the Korean Research Institute for Standards and Science in 1997 and by the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards in 2004, comparing them to North Korean data stemming from the 1997 and 2002 nutritional surveys conducted by the United Nations. Furthermore, this article makes use of anthropometric measurements of North Korean refugee children immigrating to South Korea from 2000 to 2007. In 1997, South Korean preschool children were found on average to be 6-7 cm (2-3 in.) taller and about 3 kg (6.6 pounds) heavier than their Northern counterparts; in 2002, the average gap was about 8 cm (3 in.) and 3 kg (6.6 pounds), and the BMI gap was about 1. North Korean boys and girls escaping to South Korea were also found to be on average about 3-4 cm (1-1.6 in.) shorter and 1 kg (2.2 pounds) lighter than their Southern peers.

Early stature prediction method using stature growth parameters.

BACKGROUND: The creation of an accurate growth prediction method for human stature at a stage of growth has been an interesting challenge in medical science and human biology. AIM: The aim of this study was to develop a non-radiographic final stature prediction method that is applicable in the early pubertal growth period. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Randomly selected 12-year serial stature growth data for 400 Koreans were fitted with two nonlinear growth curves: Preece and Baines model 1 (PB1) and Jolicoeur-Pontier-Pernin-Sempe (JPPS) functions. Five biological parameters, including take-off (TO) related parameters, were derived by differentiation of the two curves, respectively. Those five variables were composed into a multiple linear regression equation for final stature prediction. In the cross-validation subjects, TO-related variables were estimated by linear interpolation from the partial growth data prior to estimation age, then incorporated into the prediction equation. RESULTS: The final stature prediction model had excellent validity and accuracy when applied to the cross-validation samples. Prediction accuracy increased according to increasing years after take-off. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that a final stature prediction method using multiple regression analysis that includes biological parameters can predict stature growth with sufficient validity and accuracy. Incorporation of TO-related parameters allowed us to develop earlier growth evaluation and prediction methods compared with other previous methods.

The biological standard of living in the two Koreas.

Height data of North Korean escapees are analyzed to assess changes in their biological standard of living. In contrast to the population of South Korea, as well as to that of most of the rest of the world, North Koreans did not experience an increase in physical stature during the second half of the 20th century. The divergence between the height of North- and South-Koreans began among the birth cohorts of the late 1940s and became increasingly pronounced thereafter. This is an indication of the adverse socio-economic circumstances prevailing in the northern part of the Korean peninsula.