Fetal and infant origins of diabetes and ill health: Evidence from Puerto Rico's 1928 and 1932 hurricanes

Orlando Sotomayor

Economics & Human Biology, 2013, vol. 11, issue 3, 281-293

Abstract: A natural experiment is employed to analyze the relationship between living standards, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Results show that shocks generated by two powerful tropical storms striking Puerto Rico during the late 1920s and early 1930s had long-term consequences consistent with the fetal origins hypothesis. Individuals in the womb or early infancy in the aftermath of the storms are more likely to report a diagnosis of hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, and are considerably more likely to have no formal schooling.

Keywords: Fetal origins; Hurricanes; Puerto Rico; Barker hypothesis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I0 I12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (25)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X12000317
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:11:y:2013:i:3:p:281-293

DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2012.02.009

Access Statistics for this article

Economics & Human Biology is currently edited by J. Komlos, Inas R Kelly and Joerg Baten

More articles in Economics & Human Biology from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().