Tall stature

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Tall stature or tall stature (macrosomia) is (as well as giant stature ) a term for

  1. the fact that a person's body is comparatively long (tall stature as a classification criterion).
  2. Tall stature (1) caused by a disease (tall stature as a symptom).
  3. a disease that results in or can have tall stature (1) (tall stature as a disease).

Tall stature does not mean the increase in the average height of a population.

A common definition of tall stature (1) is that - broken down by gender - the 3% of the population with the greatest body length are tall. A subset of the high growth is the gigantism . A corresponding term for comparatively short body lengths is short stature .

definition

The terms tall (2) and tall (3) are based on the definition of tall (1) . This is generally used for the fact that a person belongs to the 3% with the greatest body length within his gender and the current population (cf. 97% percentile ). For Central Europe these are (as of 2003) women from a body length of 180 cm and men from a body length of 192 cm. Often the term is also restricted to people of the same age. By referring to the current population, the absolute limits for tall stature are variable and differ between the ethnic groups.

In the literature the wrong definition of "increased length growth" can also be found. However, tall stature (1) is not defined by growth (i.e. the increase in body length over time), but rather by body length.

Social relevance

Accessibility

Numerous dimensions of objects and structures only take into account the average height of the population, but not that of tall people. Particularly problematic z. B.

  • Rows of seats and vehicles
  • dress
  • Furniture, hotel beds
  • Passages
  • Payphones, ATMs and ticket machines
  • Signs, lamps, scaffolding
  • Tools and jobs

be. Often there is still no accessibility . A group of tall people that takes on this issue, among other things, is the Long People Club .

Discrimination

The term tall stature is defined in such a way that it naturally represents a special feature (anomaly, abnormality, deviation from the norm, irregularities). Therefore, expressions such as particularly long , particularly large , are factually correct if they are used in a factual context. However, expressions such as too long, too big, excessively long or excessively large are discriminatory, because they are negative or even accusing, unless an appropriate explanation is provided. Above all, the reversal of causality has a discriminatory effect here, e.g. B. when a person is said to be too long for a bed when in reality the bed is too short for the person.

In addition, it is wrong to assume that tall stature (1) is generally a negative thing. Its portrayal as a disease is also incorrect. A distinction must be made between disease-related tall stature (2) and, in particular, tall stature as a disease (3). Confusion and misjudgments can arise if these terms are not clearly separated. For example, the treatment of tall stature is discriminatory when tall stature is mentioned as a physical feature, while it is perfectly appropriate when tall stature is meant as a disease or its symptom.

etiology

The different forms of tall stature are:

The primordial tall stature corresponds to the tall stature (1) , the other tall stature corresponds to the tall stature (2,3) .

Web links

Commons : Tall people  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Roche Lexicon Medicine. Elsevier, Munich 2003. - 5th edition - ISBN 3-437-15150-9
  2. ^ Roche Lexicon Medicine. Elsevier, Munich 2003. - 5th edition - ISBN 3-437-15150-9
  3. ^ Roche Lexicon Medicine. Elsevier, Munich 2003. - 5th edition - ISBN 3-437-15150-9
  4. ^ Roche Lexicon Medicine. Elsevier, Munich 2003. - 5th edition - ISBN 3-437-15150-9