Re-Constructing Childhood Health Histories

James Smith

No 4036, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper provides evidence about the quality of retrospective childhood health histories given to respondents in the HRS and the PSID. Even though information on early life health events is critical, there is legitimate skepticism about the ability of older respondents to remember specific health problems that they had as a child. The evidence presented in this paper suggests that this is too negative a view. Respondents appear to remember salient childhood events about themselves such as the illnesses they had as a child quite well. Moreover, these physical and psychological childhood health events are important correlates of adult health during middle age.

Keywords: childhood health; recall (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H0 J0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34 pages
Date: 2009-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Published - published in: Demography 46(2):387-403, May 2009

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Related works:
Journal Article: Reconstructing childhood health histories (2009)
Working Paper: Re-Constructing Childhood Health Histories (2009)
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