A short study about height: The health highs and lows

THEY are used to being looked up to... but now there’s a big downside to being lofty.

Peter Crouch and Abbey Clancy in the grounds of Stapleford Park in Leicester following their wedding (Pic:PA)


A new report says taller people are more likely to develop common cancers.

But it’s definitely not all bad news for the likes of Peter Crouch, Sophie Dahl and Penny Lancaster.


The shorter you are, the more likely you are to become a football hooligan, according to a study of more than 400 young men from South london. David Farrington, professor of psychological criminology at Cambridge University, said of small men at a conference on youth crime: "They seem to have an Adolf hitler complex."


Short people are more likely to be injured in car crashes, says a report by a london hospital.

They sit nearer to the steering wheel so are more likely to be injured by the airbag. However, other studies claim they generally suffer fewer injuries, probably because they don't have as far to fall.


Taller women are more likely to have twins, according to a study. New york's Jewish Medical Centre found multiple-birth mothers were an average 5ft 5in, more than an inch taller than the average American woman's height. The report, in the Journal of reproductive Medicine, said the reason could be the growth hor- - mone IGF-1 - positively linked with both height and twinning.


Short people earn less than tall people, studies show. researchers who compared two large groups of both short and tall people found that each additional inch gained in height adds roughly 2% to average earnings. Women who are at least 5ft 8in are twice as likely to earn over £30,000 a year, too, a poll found.


TAll passengers are more likely to develop deep vein thrombosis on longhaul flights.

A study by the University of Tromso in Norway found men of 6ft or more were 2.6 times more likely to develop blood clots in their legs than men of 5ft 8in or shorter.

The clot risk is increased, they believed, because in tall people blood must be pumped a longer distance, and flow can be affected.


Scientists at Bristol University who dug up 490 skeletons from a churchyard in 2001 discovered the taller you are, the longer you live. They said bone lengths just one point above average cut the risk of early death by 10% to 20%.


Tall people are happier than short people, according to research published in the economics and human Biology journal.

The survey found taller people were more positive and less likely to talk of sorrow or pain but more likely to feel stress and anger.


Tall people are more attractive to the opposite sex, a study by the University of Gdansk, Poland, found.

They concluded the ideal height of an attractive woman was 5ft 9in and it was 6ft 2in for a man.


Scientists studying the feeding habits of the Scottish biting midge found tall people are more likely to be attacked by the insects.

The study, by the University of Aberdeen, concluded that midges preferred taller people because they emit more heat, moisture and carbon dioxide, which encourage them to bite.


Men who are verticallychallenged are more likely to be jealous, concluded Spanish and Dutch researchers in 2008.

Their report, featured in the journal of evolution and human Behaviour, said smaller men felt insecure because male height is associated with attractiveness, dominance and reproduction.


They might be breathing a sigh of relief on the cancer front but studies show short people are at a greater risk of developing heart disease.

Finnish researchers looked at evidence from studies of more than three million people and found short adults were around 1.5 times more likely to develop heart disease and be killed by it than tall people.

This appeared to be true for both men and women.


A number of studies have found the taller you are, the better your job prospects.

When author Malcolm Gladwell measured the height of the chief executives of US Fortune 500 companies, he found 58% were at least 6ft - compared with 14% in the general US population. Meanwhile, US presidents are typically tall - Abraham lincoln was 6ft 4in, Bill Clinton is 6ft 2in.


They might want to be like their leggy friends but shorter women are luckier in love.

An Open University study of 10,000 showed those significantly shorter than the average 5ft 3in were more likely to be married with children by 42.

The opposite is true for men. According to French researchers, those over 6ft have a 50% better chance of being in a stable relationship.


TALL people tend to have higher IQs, a study by Princeton University in the US found.

Researchers put this down to good nutrition during pregnancy and childhood, increasing both their height and brain function.

Meanwhile, Sweden's Karolinska Institute studied 950,000 army conscripts and found those taller than 6ft 4in had better qualifications than smaller soldiers.


Shorter men are 20% to 30% more likely to become crooks, according to a study by US economists. Short students participate less in clubs and may lack certain social skills, so can turn to crime.

For it’s very often those below average stature who get the short straw. Here we reveal how height can affect your life...

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