Height shrinkage, health and mortality among older adults: Evidence from Indonesia

Urvashi Jain and Mingming Ma

Economics & Human Biology, 2020, vol. 37, issue C

Abstract: In this paper, we analyze the correlates of height shrinkage and the association of height shrinkage and late-life health among mid-aged and older adults from the Indonesian Family Life Survey. We first document the extent of height shrinkage based on measured height over 17 years. Height shrinkage is higher among older age groups, taller individuals, and women. Socioeconomic and initial health correlates of shrinkage are found to be different for men and women. Higher education, marital status, household consumption, urban birth and poor self-reported health in adulthood and childhood are found to be significant correlates for men. Ethnicity, working in the agricultural sector and availability of local health infrastructure are key correlates of height shrinkage for women. Height shrinkage of 1 cm is associated with a 0.02 s.d. decrease in cognition scores for Indonesian men and a 0.01 s.d. decrease for women, and 4% increase in index of mobility difficulties for both men and women. Extreme height loss, defined as height loss greater than 3 cm is associated with 8–10 percent lower lung function and grip strength among both men and women. Extreme height loss among Indonesian older women is also associated with a 7-percentage-point increase in the likelihood of death in the most recent wave. Our results emphasize the importance of taking into account age related height loss as a significant covariate for health and mortality of older adults, independent of baseline height and health.

Keywords: Aging; Height shrinkage; Health; Mortality; Indonesia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 J14 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:37:y:2020:i:c:s1570677x1930139x

DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2020.100863

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