The final phase of growth in height.

Among 221 boys investigated, only 54% had the same (+/- 1 cm) body height at age 27 years as they had at age 19. Longitudinal observations of those boys indicate that the increment from 18 to 27 years is strongly dependent on skeletal maturation and even on such a distant event as age at peak height velocity. Average increment in stature was 2.13 cm, and the maximum increment was 7 cm. Late-maturing individuals are largely responsible for the differences in average stature observed in cross-sectional studies in the third decade of life.