Casting shadows: later-life outcomes of stature

Abstract

The central question in this special issue is a relatively new one in anthropometric history: how did body height affect the life course? This raises the issue of whether such an effect merely captures the underlying early-life conditions that impact growth, or whether some independent effect of stature can be discerned. Further, the effects of height on later-life outcomes need not be linear. These effects may also differ by gender, by context (time and place), and among life course domains such as occupational success, family formation or health in later life. The ten research articles in this issue use a plethora of historical sources on individuals, such as prison and hospital records, conscript records, genealogies and health surveys. These articles employ a variety of methods to distinguish between early-life and later-life effects, between intra- and intergenerational processes and between biological and socio-economic factors. Importantly, all articles discuss the impact of the specific context on their results to understand these effects. The overall conclusion is that independent later-life outcomes of height are rather ambiguous, and seem to stem more from the perception of physical strength, health and intelligence associated with height than from height itself. This special issue also reflects on intergenerational effects of the later-life outcomes of height. As populations have grown taller, it is possible that height and later-life outcomes have formed a ‘virtuous cycle’, resulting in taller, healthier and wealthier populations. So far, however, our research offers little support for this hypothesis.