Height and risk of death among men and women: aetiological implications of associations with cardiorespiratory disease and cancer mortality

Abstract

Objectives-Height is inversely associated with cardiovascular disease mortality risk and has shown variable associations with cancer incidence and mortality. The interpretation of findings from previous studies has been constrained by data limitations. Associations between height and specific causes of death were investigated in a large general population cohort of men and women from the West of Scotland. Design-Prospective observational study. Results-Over the follow up period 3347 men and 2638 women died. Height is inversely associated with all cause, coronary heart disease, stroke, and respiratory disease mortality among men and women. Adjustment for socioeconomic position and cardiovascular risk factors had little influence on these associations. Height is strongly associated with forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV 1 ) and adjustment for FEV 1 considerably attenuated the association between height and cardiorespiratory mortality. Smoking related cancer mortality is not associated with height. The risk of deaths from cancer unrelated to smoking tended to increase with height, particularly for haematopoietic, colorectal and prostate cancers. Stomach cancer mortality was inversely associated with height. Adjustment for socioeconomic position had little influence on these associations. Conclusion-Height serves partly as an indicator of socioeconomic circumstances and nutritional status in childhood and this may underlie the inverse associations between height and adulthood cardiorespiratory mortality. Much of the association between height and cardiorespiratory mortality was accounted for by lung function, which is also partly determined by exposures acting in childhood. The inverse association between height and stomach cancer mortality probably reflects Helicobacter pylori infection in childhood resulting in-or being associated with-shorter height. The positive associations between height and several cancers unrelated to smoking could reflect the influence of calorie intake during childhood on the risk of these cancers. Setting-Renfrew

Height, weight, and alcohol consumption in relation to the risk of colorectal cancer in Japan: a prospective study

“…Six other prospective studies Chute et al, 1991;Bostick et al, 1994;Giovannucci et al, 1995;Robsahm and Tretli, 1999;Smith et al, 2000), but not all, support our finding that being tall significantly elevates the risk of colorectal cancer. One possibility is that taller people may have longer intestines (Hirsch et al, 1956) and have a greater rate of cell division within the tissue (Albanes and Winick, 1988); thus, more colon cells may be at risk.…”

“…Height is affected not only by genetic factors, but also by nutritional condition during childhood and adolescent. Some studies Chute et al, 1991;Bostick et al, 1994;Giovannucci et al, 1995;Robsahm and Tretli, 1999;Smith et al, 2000), but not all (Okasha et al, 2000), have reported a positive association between height and colon cancer. Results of studies on body mass index (BMI) in relation to colorectal cancer have been also inconsistent.…”

Associations of adult measures of childhood growth with breast cancer: findings from the British Women's Heart and Health Study

“…The majority of cohort studies have found that tall stature is associated with increased cancer risk. The most consistent associations are found for breast cancer, a recent review finding that all but one (Davey Smith et al, 2000) of 24 prospective studies showed a positive association with height (Gunnell et al, 2001).…”

Influence of childhood socioeconomic circumstances, height, and obesity on pulse pressure and systolic and diastolic blood pressure in older people

“…In our study, short stature showed an association with decreased DBP in women. However, most studies have not observed a relation between height and DBP, 5,7-11,13,14 except for one study that found an inverse relation between height and DBP in men, 4 and another study that found a direct relation. 30 These inconsistent results could be due to the fact that adult height is a nonspecific measure of exposures that affect all growth periods and not just growth in childhood.…”

“…16,17 The independent association of short stature with increased PP suggests that PP could be a potential mediator of the relation between short stature and increased risk of coronary heart disease that has been seen in many studies. 4,19 This would also explain the paradox of the consistent findings about the relation between height and coronary heart disease and the inconsistent findings about the association of short stature with SBP and DBP.…”