Abstract
In this chapter, the authors examine the relationship between height and health among older Chinese. The study is based on a quantitative analysis of data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey (CHARLS). The results show that taller people enjoy better health at older ages in China. The authors discuss the importance of investment in health human capital in infancy and adolescence, as a way of ensuring better health outcomes in old age.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Akresh, R., Bhalotra, S., Leone, M., & Osili, U. O. (2012). War and stature: Growing up during the Nigerian civil war. American Economic Review, 102(3), 273–277.
Almond, D. (2006). Is the 1918 influenza pandemic over? Long-term effects of in utero influenza exposure in the post 1940 US population. Journal of Political Economy, 114, 672–712.
Barker, D. J. P. (1990). The fetal and infant origins of adult disease: The womb may be more important than the home. British Medical Journal, 301, 1111.
Beard, A. S., & Blaser, M. J. (2002). The ecology of height: The effect of microbial transmission on human height. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 45(4), 475–499.
Brunner, E. J. (2005). Social and biological determinants of cognitive aging. Neurobiology of Aging, 26(1), 17–20.
Case, A., & Paxson, C. (2008a). Stature and status: Height, ability and labor market outcomes. Journal of Political Economy, 116(3), 499–532.
Case, A., & Paxson, C. (2008b). Height, health and cognitive function at older ages. American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 98(2), 463–467.
Case, A., & Paxson, C. (2011). The long reach of childhood health and circumstance: Evidence from the Whitehall II study. Economic Journal, 121, F183–F204.
Case, A., Paxson, C., & Islam, M. (2009). Making sense of the labor market height premium: Evidence from the British household panel survey. Economics Letters, 102(3), 174–176.
Chatterji, S., Kowal, P., Mathers, C., Maidoo, N., Verdes, E., Smith, J. P., et al. (2008). The health of aging populations in China and India. Health Affairs, 27(4), 1052–1063.
China Daily. (2016, January 8). Empty personal pension accounts. China Daily, p. 8.
Cutler, D., Miller, G. & Norton, D. M. (2007). Evidence on early life income and late life health from America’s dust bowl era. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 104(33), 13244–13249.
Deaton, A., & Arora, R. (2009). Life at the top: The benefits of height. Economics & Human Biology, 7(2), 133–136.
Gao, W., & Smyth, R. (2010). Health human capital, height and wages in China. Journal of Development Studies, 46(3), 466–484.
Guven, C., & Lee, W. S. (2013). Height and cognitive function at older ages: Is height a useful summary measure of early childhood experiences? Health Economics, 22, 224–236.
Guven, C., & Lee, W. S. (2015). Height, aging and cognitive abilities across Europe. Economics & Human Biology, 16, 16–29.
Huang, W., Lei, X., Ridder, G., Strauss, J., & Zhao, Y. (2013). Health, height shrinkage and SES in older ages: Evidence from China. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 5(2), 86–121.
Huang, W., & Zhou, Y. (2013). Effects of education on cognition at older age: Evidence from China’s great famine. Social Science and Medicine, 98, 54–62.
Islam, A., Raschky, P. A., & Smyth, R. (2017). The long-term health effects of mass political violence: Evidence from China’s cultural revolution. Social Indicators Research, 132(1), 257–272.
Ji, C. Y., Ohsawa, S., & Kasai, N. (1995). Secular changes in the stature, weight and age at maximum growth increments of urban Chinese girls from the 1950s to 1985. American Journal of Human Biology, 7(4), 473–484.
Kesternich, I., Siflinger, B., Smith, J. P., & Winter, J. K. (2014). The effects of World War II on economic and health outcomes across Europe. Review of Economics and Statistics, 96(1), 103–118.
Kim, S., Fleisher, B., & Sun, J. Y. (2017). The long-term health effects of fetal malnutrition: Evidence from the 1959–1961 China great leap forward famine. Health Economics, 26, 1264–1277.
Leung, S. S. F., Lau, J. T. F., Xu, Y. Y., Tse, L. Y., Huen, K. F., Wong, G. W. K., … Leung, N. K. (1996). Secular changes in standing height, sitting height and sexual maturation of Chinese—The hong kong growth study. Annals of Human Biology, 23(4), 297–306.
Lin, M. J., & Liu, E. M. (2014). Does in utero exposure to illness matter? The 1918 influenza epidemic in Taiwan as a natural experiment. Journal of Health Economics, 37, 152–163.
Maurer, J. (2010). Height, education and later-life cognition in Latin America and the Caribbean. Economics & Human Biology, 8, 168–176.
McGovern, M. E. (2014). Comparing the relationship between stature and later life health in six low and middle-income countries. Journal of the Economics of Ageing, 4, 128–148.
Morgan, S. (2007). Stature and famine in China: The welfare of the survivors of the great leap forward famine. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1083059.
Mosca, I., & Wright, R. E. (2016). Height and cognition at older ages: Irish evidence. Economics Letters, 149, 98–101.
Neelsen, S., & Stratmann, T. (2011). Effects of prenatal and early life malnutrition: Evidence from the Greek Famine. Journal of Health Economics, 30, 479–488.
Schultz, T. P. (2002). Wage gains associated with height as a form of health human capital. American Economic Review, 92(2), 349–353.
Schwartz, B. S., Stewart, W. F., Bolla, K. I., Simon, D., Bandeen-Roche, K., Gordon, B., … Todd, A. C. (2000). Past adult lead exposure is associated with longitudinal decline in cognitive function. Neurology, 55(8), 1144–1150.
Smith, J. P., Shen, Y., Strauss, J., Yang, Z., & Zhao, Y. (2012). The effects of childhood health on adult health and SES in China. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 61(1), 127–156.
Yamamura, E., Smyth, R., & Zhang, Y. (2015). Decomposing the effect of height on income in China: The role of market and political channels. Economics & Human Biology, 19, 62–74.
Zhao, Y., Strauss, J., Park, A., & Sun, Y. (2009). China health and retirement longitudinal study, Pilot User’s Guide. National School of Development, Peking University.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Islam, A., Raschky, P., Smyth, R. (2020). Height and Health Among Older Chinese. In: Awaworyi Churchill, S., Farrell, L., Appau, S. (eds) Measuring, Understanding and Improving Wellbeing Among Older People. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2353-3_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2353-3_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-15-2352-6
Online ISBN: 978-981-15-2353-3
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)