Comparing the Relationship Between Stature and Later Life Health in Six Low and Middle Income Countries

Mark McGovern

PGDA Working Papers from Program on the Global Demography of Aging

Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between stature and later life health in 6 emerging economi– es, each of which are expected to experience significant increases in the mean age of their populations over the coming decades. Using data from the WHO Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE) and pilot data from the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI), I show that various measures of health are associated with height, a commonly used proxy for childhood environment. In the pooled sample, a 10cm increase in height is associated with between a 2 and 3 percentage point increase in the probability of being in very good or good self-reported health, a 3 percentage point increase in the probability of reporting no difficulties with activities of daily living or instrumental activities of daily living, and between a fifth and a quarter of a standard deviation increase in grip strength and lung function. Adopting a methodology previously used in the research on inequality, I also summarise the height-grip strength gradient for each country using the concentration index, and provide a decomposition analysis. JEL Codes: I12, I14, D30, O15

Keywords: Early Life Conditions; Health; Ageing; Height; Inequality; Low and Middle Income Countries; LASI; SAGE (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
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Related works:
Journal Article: Comparing the relationship between stature and later life health in six low and middle income countries (2014)
Working Paper: Comparing the Relationship Between Stature and Later Life Health in Six Low and Middle Income Countries (2014)
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