Adjusted for age and sex, the association of childhood conditions with leg length and height varied with parental literacy (interaction p values<0.01 and 0.03), but not for sitting height (p value 0.43), with statistically significant trends (p values<0.01) for parental possessions to be associated with longer legs and greater height only in the offspring of two literate parents where legs were longer by 0.56 cm (95% CI 0.27 to 0.86) and height greater by 1.16 cm (95% CI 0.74 to 1