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Short Lives : The Impact of Parental Death on Early-Life Mortality and Height in the Netherlands, 1850-1940

Quanjer, Björn ; van Dijk, Ingrid K. LU and Rosenbaum-Feldbrügge, Matthias LU (2023) In Demography 60(1). p.255-279
Abstract

We investigate how experiencing parental death in infancy, childhood, or adolescence affected individuals' health using two distinct measures: mortality before age 20 and young adult height. Using two complementary indicators of health enables us to gain more insights into processes of selection and the scarring of health. Employing nationally representative data for the Netherlands for the 1850-1940 period, we analyze the survival of roughly 36,000 boys and girls using Cox proportional hazard models, and the stature of more than 4,000 young adult men using linear regression models. Results show that losing a parent-particularly a mother-at an early age (0-1 or 1-5) was related to a strongly increased risk of mortality. We find no... (More)

We investigate how experiencing parental death in infancy, childhood, or adolescence affected individuals' health using two distinct measures: mortality before age 20 and young adult height. Using two complementary indicators of health enables us to gain more insights into processes of selection and the scarring of health. Employing nationally representative data for the Netherlands for the 1850-1940 period, we analyze the survival of roughly 36,000 boys and girls using Cox proportional hazard models, and the stature of more than 4,000 young adult men using linear regression models. Results show that losing a parent-particularly a mother-at an early age (0-1 or 1-5) was related to a strongly increased risk of mortality. We find no evidence that losing a parent at these ages affected stature in young adulthood. For boys, experiencing maternal death between ages five and 12 was strongly associated with a shorter young adult height; however, we did not find evidence for an association between experiencing paternal death and shorter stature. We conclude that stature may not be a particularly good measure of the effects of early-life adversity if the health shock greatly increases mortality, as these effects create potential issues of health selection.

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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Early-life conditions, Health outcomes, Height, Mortality, Parental death
in
Demography
volume
60
issue
1
pages
25 pages
publisher
Population Assn Amer
external identifiers
  • scopus:85147894193
  • pmid:36656288
ISSN
1533-7790
DOI
10.1215/00703370-10421550
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
45ae39b0-bd36-4ce0-97ee-f7626fcdb88c
date added to LUP
2022-09-15 11:23:55
date last changed
2024-06-17 08:12:57
@article{45ae39b0-bd36-4ce0-97ee-f7626fcdb88c,
  abstract     = {{<p>We investigate how experiencing parental death in infancy, childhood, or adolescence affected individuals' health using two distinct measures: mortality before age 20 and young adult height. Using two complementary indicators of health enables us to gain more insights into processes of selection and the scarring of health. Employing nationally representative data for the Netherlands for the 1850-1940 period, we analyze the survival of roughly 36,000 boys and girls using Cox proportional hazard models, and the stature of more than 4,000 young adult men using linear regression models. Results show that losing a parent-particularly a mother-at an early age (0-1 or 1-5) was related to a strongly increased risk of mortality. We find no evidence that losing a parent at these ages affected stature in young adulthood. For boys, experiencing maternal death between ages five and 12 was strongly associated with a shorter young adult height; however, we did not find evidence for an association between experiencing paternal death and shorter stature. We conclude that stature may not be a particularly good measure of the effects of early-life adversity if the health shock greatly increases mortality, as these effects create potential issues of health selection.</p>}},
  author       = {{Quanjer, Björn and van Dijk, Ingrid K. and Rosenbaum-Feldbrügge, Matthias}},
  issn         = {{1533-7790}},
  keywords     = {{Early-life conditions; Health outcomes; Height; Mortality; Parental death}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{02}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{255--279}},
  publisher    = {{Population Assn Amer}},
  series       = {{Demography}},
  title        = {{Short Lives : The Impact of Parental Death on Early-Life Mortality and Height in the Netherlands, 1850-1940}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/00703370-10421550}},
  doi          = {{10.1215/00703370-10421550}},
  volume       = {{60}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}