Height, education and later-life cognition in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Building on previous evidence from the U.S., this study investigates the relationship between anthropometric markers (height and knee height), early-life conditions, education, and cognitive function in later life among urban elderly from Latin America and the Caribbean. I document a positive association between height and later-life cognitive function, which is larger for women than for men. This sex difference increases when I address potential feedback effects from mid- and later-life circumstances on stature by using knee height as an instrument for height. Specifically, while the estimates for women remain largely unchanged, I only find a diminished and statistically insignificant association between instrumented height and later-life cognition for men. This finding suggests that at least part of the association between height and later-life cognition among men may stem from common third factors that are correlated with both height and later-life cognition, such as adverse occupational exposures or health events during mid- and later life. Extended models that also include education further diminish the association between height and later-life cognition. Education displays strong positive gradients with the employed measures of childhood circumstances - including height - which points to education as a potential pathway linking early-life conditions and later-life cognitive function.
Maurer
Jürgen
J
RAND Corporation, 1200 South Hayes Street, Arltington, VA 22202-5050, USA. jmaurer@rand.org
D000368:Aged; D001827:Body Height; D017691:Caribbean Region; D003071:Cognition; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007843:Latin America; D016018:Least-Squares Analysis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014504:Urban Health