Health, Height, Height Shrinkage, and SES at Older Ages: Evidence from China

Huang, Wei; Lei, Xiaoyan; Ridder, Geert; Strauss, John S.; Zhao, Yaohui

doi:10.1257/app.5.2.86

Cited by 74 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…We use lower leg length instead of total height because the older respondents have begun to shrink, which turns out to be highly correlated with a respondent’s SES, and for a measure of childhood health, we want a measure of pre-shrinkage height. Lower leg length does not shrink with age, hence is a much better proxy for pre-shrinkage height (see Huang et al, 2013, for details).…”

Section: Data and Measurementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Depressive symptoms and SES among the mid-aged and elderly in China: Evidence from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study national baseline

Lei

Sun

Strauss

et al. 2014

Social Science & Medicine

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325

229

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We examine the prevalence of depressive symptoms among the mid-aged and elderly in China and examine relationships between depression and current SES factors such as gender, age, education and income (per capita expenditures). In addition, we explore associations of depressive symptoms with measures of early childhood health, recent family deaths and current chronic health conditions. We use data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) national baseline, fielded in 2011/12, which contains the ten question version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scale (CES-D) for 17,343 respondents aged 45 and older. We fill a major gap by using the CHARLS data to explore the general patterns of depression and risk factors among the Chinese elderly nationwide, which has never been possible before. We find that depressive symptoms are significantly associated with own education and per capita expenditure, and the associations are robust to the inclusion of highly disaggregated community fixed effects and to the addition of several other risk factors. Factors such as good general health during childhood are negatively associated with later depression. There exist strong gender differences, with females having higher depression scores. Being a recent widow or widower is associated with more depressive symptoms, as is having a series of chronic health problems, notably having moderate or severe pain, disability or problems with measures of physical functioning. Adding the chronic health problems to the specification greatly reduces the SES associations with depressive symptoms, suggesting that part of the pathways behind these associations are through these chronic health factors.

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Section: Data and Measurementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Depressive symptoms and SES among the mid-aged and elderly in China: Evidence from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study national baseline

Lei

Sun

Strauss

et al. 2014

Social Science & Medicine

Self Cite

325

229

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…This issue of potential bias is raised, but not investigated in Leon et al (1995), Case and Paxson (2008) and Smith et al (2012). Mokyr and Ó Gráda (1996) adjust for the age profile in prison records, while more recently Huang et al (2013) examined this issue with Chinese data. 1 …”

Section: Existing Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physical stature decline and the health status of the elderly population in England

Fernihough

McGovern²

2015

Economics & Human Biology

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Few research papers in economics have examined the extent, causes or consequences of physical stature decline in aging populations. Using repeated observations on objectively measured data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), we document that reduction in height is an important phenomenon among older individuals. On average, physical stature decline amongst older individuals occurs at an annual rate of between 0.08% and 0.10% for males, and 0.12% and 0.14% for females—which approximately translates into a 2cm to 4cm reduction in height over the life course. Since height is commonly used as a measure of long-run health, our results demonstrate that failing to take age-related height loss into account substantially overstates the health disadvantage of older birth cohorts relative to their younger counterparts. We also show that there is an absence of consistent predictors of physical stature decline at the individual level. However, we demonstrate how deteriorating health and reductions in height occur simultaneously. We document that declines in muscle mass and bone density are likely to be the mechanism through which these effects are operating. This has potential implications for the existing literature because if this decline is determined by deteriorating health in adulthood, the coefficient on a measured height when used as an input in a typical empirical health production function will be affected by reverse causality. While our analysis details the inherent difficulties associated with measuring height in older populations, we do not find that significant bias arises in typical empirical health production functions from the use of height which has not been adjusted for physical stature decline. Therefore, our results validate the use of height among the population over 50.

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“…Controlling for these factors, however, does not greatly diminish observed associations. 129 Other potential confounders between height and health outcomes include medical conditions, socioeconomic conditions, or nutritional conditions that lead to both shorter stature and lower cognitive ability (e.g., fetal alcohol syndrome, or brain volume) 202,203 or diseaserelated height loss and subsequent mortality and morbidity, 204,205 However, a study of son's height as an instrument to predict parental mortality suggested little confounding due to health-related shrinkage on the relationship between own height and mortality. 206 Finally, Biological Childhood nutrition and disease have consequences that impact mortality and morbidity in adulthood.…”

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confidence: 99%