Introduction:

many studies have used anthropometric data to approach the evolution of the net nutritional status but those focused on its socioeconomic differentials over time are still a few in Spain.

Objective:

to analyze the evolution of nutritional inequalities in the long run by using a sample of male statures from the Spanish towns of Elche and Orihuela.

Methods:

we use anthropometric and sociodemographic data entailed to conscripts aged 19-21 who were born between 1840 and 1964 and were measured between 1860 and 1984. Anthropometric inequalities are approached by analyzing height percentiles series, variation coefficient series as well as height series by socio-educational status: literate, illiterate and students.

Results:

there is a solid association between low height averages (poor nutritional status) and more heterogeneous height distribution (higher inequality). The highest values of the variation coefficient as well as the larger differences by socio-educational status are found during the central decades of the 19th century and during the context of the Spanish Civil War and the first postwar decade.

Conclusion:

nutritional inequalities as reflected by heights decreased from very high levels prior to the nutrition and epidemiological transitions moderate levels during such transitions. Nevertheless, an increase in nutritional inequality is found among the cohorts born during the decade of the 1940s which were fully or partially raised during the advanced stage of the nutrition transition.

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