The health transition and biological living standards: Adult height and mortality in 20th-century Spain

• Published in: Economics and human biology Vol. 10; no. 3; pp. 276 - 288
• Main Authors: Spijker, Jeroen J.A., Cámara, Antonio D., Blanes, Amand
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.07.2012
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Age Factors; Aged; Body Height - physiology; Chi-Square Distribution; Child; Child, Preschool; Cohort height; Data Collection; Female; Health Surveys; Health Transition; Humans; Income - statistics & numerical data; Infant; Infant mortality; Infant Mortality - trends; Infant, Newborn; Life Expectancy - trends; Male; Middle Aged; Multivariate Analysis; Reference Values; Regression Analysis; Self Report; Social Class; Socioeconomic Factors; Spain; Young Adult; Spain; Cohort height; J10; I10; Infant mortality; Health transition; Health surveys; O00; N00; Spain
• ISSN: 1570-677X; 1873-6130
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2011.08.001

► For average height infant living conditions are more important than adolescence. ► Higher eco-sensibility of males during both critical periods for physical growth. ► Mortality declined rapidly early 20th century Spain but height improved marginally. ► Infant mortality increased and height stagnated for Spanish Civil War birth cohort. ► Improvements in height for males after 1940, females after late 1950s. Gender Penalty? This paper seeks new insights concerning the health transition in 20th century Spain by analyzing both traditional (mortality-based) and alternative (anthropometric-based) health indicators. Data were drawn from national censuses, vital and cause-of-death statistics and seven National Health Surveys dating from 1987 to 2006 (almost 100,000 subjects aged 20–79 were used to compute cohort height averages). A multivariate regression analysis was performed on infant mortality and economic/historical dummy variables. Our results agree with the general timing of the health transition process in Spain as has been described to date insofar as we document that there was a rapid improvement of sanitary and health care related factors during the second half of the 20th century reflected by a steady decline in infant mortality and increase in adult height. However, the association between adult height and infant mortality turned out to be not linear. In addition, remarkable gender differences emerged: mean height increased continuously for male cohorts born after 1940 but meaningful improvements in height among female cohorts was not attained until the late 1950s.