Adult height and childhood disease.
Taller populations are typically richer populations, and taller individuals live longer and earn more. In consequence, adult height has recently become a focus in understanding the relationship between health and wealth. We investigate the childhood determinants of population adult height, focusing on the respective roles of income and of disease. Across a range of European countries and the United States, we find a strong inverse relationship between postneonatal (ages 1 month to 1 year) mortality, interpreted as a measure of the disease and nutritional burden in childhood, and the mean height of those children as adults. Consistent with these findings, we develop a model of selection and stunting in which the early-life burden of undernutrition and disease not only is responsible for mortality in childhood but also leaves a residue of long-term health risks for survivors, risks that express themselves in adult height and in late-life disease. The model predicts that at sufficiently high mortality levels, selection can dominate scarring, leaving a taller population of survivors. We find evidence of this effect in the poorest and highest-mortality countries of the world, supplementing recent findings on the effects of the Great Chinese Famine.
Bozzoli
Carlos
C
German Institute for Economic Research, Berlin.
Deaton
Angus
A
Quintana-Domeque
Climent
C
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001827:Body Height; D002648:Child; D046688:Child Mortality; D002669:Child Welfare; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D000013:Congenital Abnormalities / Q000401:mortality; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007229:Infant Welfare; D007410:Intestinal Diseases / Q000401:mortality; D008297:Male; D044342:Malnutrition / Q000401:mortality*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009752:Nutritional Status; D011014:Pneumonia / Q000401:mortality; D011203:Poverty; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology