Childhood conditions that predict survival to advanced ages among African–Americans

Abstract

This paper investigates the social and economic circumstances of childhood that predict the probability of survival to age 85 among African-Americans. It uses a unique study design in which survivors are linked to their records in U.S. Censuses of 1900 and 1910. A control group of age and race-matched children is drawn from Public Use Samples for these censuses. It concludes that the factors most predictive of survival are farm background, having literate parents, and living in a two-parent household. Results support the interpretation that death risks are positively correlated over the life cycle.

Early-life conditions and adult mortality decline in Dutch cohorts born 1812–1921

“…Men whose fathers were farmers had significantly lower mortality in adulthood. Gagnon and Bohnert (2012) and Preston et al (1998) also found evidence for lower mortality in adulthood among Canadian and African-American men born on farms. Similar to our results they did not find such an effect for women.…”

“…It is not clear how a similar early-life environment could have produced different physiological effects on boys compared to girls (Preston et al 1998(Preston et al , p. 1242. One explanation could be that males who grew up on farms were more likely to become farmers themselves, an occupation that is associated with low mortality, whereas females who grew up on farms were less likely to become farmer's wives (Preston et al 1998(Preston et al , p. 1239. Except for the inland province of Gelderland, the effect of place of birth resembles that for women.…”

Death of family members as an overlooked source of racial disadvantage in the United States

“…Fourth, this study focused on several age cohorts, but future studies should investigate the potentially different experiences of a range of cohorts. Earlier birth cohorts were characterized by greater racial disadvantage (41), which may have resulted in higher levels of early-life exposure to death, but family deaths may be even more consequential for later birth cohorts because these deaths are less expected. Future research should also consider possible variation in racial patterns of death exposures based on geographic concentrations of poverty (5) and violence (42) that may vary across urban/rural and South/non-South regions as well as across neighborhoods and cities; this approach may reveal variation in spatial concentrations of disadvantage (43,44).…”

Early-life disease exposure and associations with adult survival, cause of death, and reproductive success in preindustrial humans

“…For example, early infections may have negative associations with later health through chronic physiological "scarring," but may also have positive associations due to acquired immunity or selection of the most robust individuals who were able to survive the harsh early environment (42). There may also be changes in the factors that influence mortality in different parts of the life course, such that the relative importance of scarring and selection may vary with age (43) and the effects of early adversity may be short-lived, or be negligible in comparison with events that occur in adult life (39).…”