Height and well-being amongst older Europeans

Kevin Denny

No 201036, Working Papers from School of Economics, University College Dublin

Abstract: This paper uses a cross?country representative sample of Europeans over the age of 50 to analyse whether individuals’ height is associated with higher or lower levels of well?being. Two outcomes are used: a measure of depression symptoms reported by individuals and a categorical measure of life satisfaction. It is shown that there is a concave relationship between height and symptoms of depression. These results are sensitive to the inclusion of several sets of controls reflecting demographics, human capital and health status. While parsimonious models suggest that height is protective against depression, the addition of controls, particularly related to health, suggests the reverse effect: tall people are predicted to have slightly more symptoms of depression. Height has no significant association with life satisfaction in models with controls for health and human capital.

Keywords: Height; Depression; Well?being; Life satisfaction; Health; Older people--Anthropometry; Stature--Europe; Well-being--Physiological aspects; Depression, Mental--Physiological aspects; Health--Physiological aspect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-hap and nep-hea
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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http://hdl.handle.net/10197/2670 First version, 2010 (application/pdf)

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