The 1918 Influenza Pandemic and Subsequent Health Outcomes: An Analysis of SIPP Data

The fetal-origins hypothesis has recently achieved "textbook" status in medicine (e.g. Rudolph, 2003 and Warrell, 2003) and is drawing increased attention for social sciences (e.g., Case, Fertig and Paxton, 2005; Currie and Moretti, 2005). The hypotheses holds that disruptions to fetal nut...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inThe American economic review Vol. 95; no. 2; pp. 258 - 262
Main Authors Almond, Douglas, Bhashkar Mazumder
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States American Economic Association 01.05.2005
Subjects
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

Loading…
More Information
Summary:The fetal-origins hypothesis has recently achieved "textbook" status in medicine (e.g. Rudolph, 2003 and Warrell, 2003) and is drawing increased attention for social sciences (e.g., Case, Fertig and Paxton, 2005; Currie and Moretti, 2005). The hypotheses holds that disruptions to fetal nutrition can exert persistent effects on subsequent health. Recent research has used the 1918 Influenza Pandemic as a natural experiment for studying the effects of fetal health (Almond, 2005). In contrast to typical influenza strains, the 1918 virus disproportionately affects young adults, approximately one-third of pregnant women contracted the debilitating virus. Using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), this study finds that cohorts in utero during the Pandemic exhibit impaired health outcomes relative to cohorts born a few months earlier or later. That these patterns are manifest 65-80 years after the Pandemic suggests that changes to fetal health can have life-long effects.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ObjectType-Article-2
ObjectType-Feature-1
ISSN:0002-8282
1944-7981
DOI:10.1257/000282805774669943