IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rpstxx/v70y2016i3p327-343.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Early-life conditions and adult mortality decline in Dutch cohorts born 1812–1921

Author

Listed:
  • Jona Schellekens
  • Frans van Poppel

Abstract

Mounting evidence suggests that early-life conditions have an enduring effect on an individual’s mortality risks as an adult. The contribution of improvements in early-life conditions to the overall decline in adult mortality, however, remains a debated issue. We provide an estimate of the contribution of improvements in early-life conditions to mortality decline after age 30 in Dutch cohorts born between 1812 and 1921. We used two proxies for early-life conditions: median height and early-childhood mortality. We estimate that improvements in early-life conditions contributed more than five years or about a third to the rise in women’s life expectancy at age 30. Improvements in early-life conditions contributed almost three years or more than a quarter to the rise in men’s life expectancy at age 30. Height appears to be the more important of the two proxies for early-life conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Jona Schellekens & Frans van Poppel, 2016. "Early-life conditions and adult mortality decline in Dutch cohorts born 1812–1921," Population Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 70(3), pages 327-343, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rpstxx:v:70:y:2016:i:3:p:327-343
    DOI: 10.1080/00324728.2016.1223336
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00324728.2016.1223336
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00324728.2016.1223336?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chae, Minhee & Hatton, Timothy J. & Meng, Xin, 2023. "Explaining trends in adult height in China: 1950 to 1990," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    2. Jeffrey C. Schiman & Robert Kaestner & Anthony T. Lo Sasso, 2017. "Early Childhood Health Shocks and Adult Wellbeing: Evidence from Wartime Britain," NBER Working Papers 23763, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Schneider, Eric B., 2021. "The effect of nutritional status on historical infectious disease morbidity: evidence from the London Foundling Hospital, 1892-1919," Economic History Working Papers 111030, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    4. Ingrid K. van Dijk & Angelique Janssens & Ken R. Smith, 2019. "The Long Harm of Childhood: Childhood Exposure to Mortality and Subsequent Risk of Adult Mortality in Utah and The Netherlands," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 35(5), pages 851-871, December.
    5. Adriaan Kalwij, 2019. "The socio-economic status gradient in median lifespan by birth cohorts: Evidence from Dutch Olympic athletes born between 1852 and 1947," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(12), pages 1-11, December.
    6. Schneider, Eric, 2021. "The Effect of Nutritional Status on Historical Infectious Disease Morbidity: Evidence from the London Foundling Hospital, 1892-1919," CEPR Discussion Papers 16361, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Fletcher, Jason & Noghanibehambari, Hamid, 2024. "The siren song of cicadas: Early-life pesticide exposure and later-life male mortality," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    8. Schiman, Jeffrey C. & Kaestner, Robert & Lo Sasso, Anthony T., 2019. "Infant mortality and adult wellbeing: Evidence from wartime Britain," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 12-29.
    9. Noghanibehambari, Hamid & Engelman, Michal, 2022. "Social insurance programs and later-life mortality: Evidence from new deal relief spending," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    10. Volha Lazuka, 2019. "Early-Life Assets in Oldest-Old Age: Evidence From Primary Care Reform in Early Twentieth Century Sweden," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(2), pages 679-706, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:rpstxx:v:70:y:2016:i:3:p:327-343. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/rpst20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.