176. School anthropometry a century ago: comparison between boys and girls from Buenos Aires and their Spanish contemporaries

CESANI MF; GONZÁLEZ-MONTERO DE ESPINOSA M; MARRODÁN MD

La Plata

Congreso; 15th Annual Conference of the Society for the Study of the Childhood of the Past.; 2023

Society for the Study of the Childhood of the Past

In December 1922, Juan Pedro Garrahan and Saul Isabelino Bettinotti, precursors of School Anthropometry in Argentina, published in the magazine “El Monitor de la Educación Común” the results of a statistical investigation on the weight and height of boys and girls attending primary schools in the City of Buenos Aires (Velez Sarsfield district). The objective was to construct a synoptic table that would make it easier for doctors and teachers to determine whether the statural or ponderal development was normal or disturbed. The authors themselves evaluated 1,031 girls and 1,009 boys with the same procedure, paying special attention to the accuracy and precision of the measurements. The aim of the present study is to highlight the value of this research and, at the same time, to establish a comparison with height and weight data of Spanish schoolchildren who were analyzed in a period close in time. The Argentine sample is contrasted with the series analyzed by Tomás Blanco in 1920, with the schoolchildren participating in the colonies of the “Institución Libre de Enseñanza” between 1915-1925 and with those measured by Julia Morros Sardá in 1934. The Buenos Aires students of the time present a height and weight markedly superior to those reported in all the Spanish samples. A century ago, Argentina was oneof the most developed countries in the world, above most European economies, which is reflected in the anthropometric situation described in the pediatric population.