Are today's children reaching bone maturity earlier?
Business Standard : Bones of children born in the most recent century reach full maturity earlier than it used to before, a new study has found. Today's children have bones that reach full maturity earlier - by nearly 10 months in girls and nearly seven months in boys, the study suggests. "Our findings show there is a "new normal" for timing when kids' skeletons will reach full maturity," said Dana Duren, lead author of the research. As part of the study published in the Journal of Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, the research team, led by Duren, assessed the radiographs of more than 1,000 children born between 1915 and 2006. The team evaluated radiographs of the bones in the hands and wrists to determine the precise timing of the beginning and end of a developmental process called epiphyseal fusion. "We focused on epiphyseal fusion because it signals the end of the growth of the bone. It begins when the growth plate, whi...