Early life mortality and height in Indian states

Abstract

Height is a marker for health, cognitive ability and economic productivity. Recent research on the determinants of height suggests that postneonatal mortality predicts height because it is a measure of the early life disease environment to which a cohort is exposed. This article advances the literature on the determinants of height by examining the role of early life mortality, including neonatal mortality, in India, a large developing country with a very short population. It uses state level variation in neonatal mortality, postneonatal mortality, and pre-adult mortality to predict the heights of adults born between 1970 and 1983, and neonatal and postneonatal mortality to predict the heights of children born between 1995 and 2005. In contrast to what is found in the literature on developed countries, I find that state level variation in neonatal mortality is a strong predictor of adult and child heights. This may be due to state level variation in, and overall poor levels of, pre-natal nutrition in India.

Education, Gender, and State-Level Gradients in the Health of Older Indians: Evidence from Biomarker Data

“…Factors such as height and weight could be viewed as being consequences of health conditions or socioeconomic status in early life (Coffey, 2014;Fernihough and McGovern, 2015), however in our analysis we find that their addition to the model has little effect on our estimates. Living arrangements and marital status of older respondents have been shown to be associated with health and poverty (Bongaarts and Zimmer, 2002;Dreze and Srinivasan, 1997;Edmonds et al, 2005;Hu and Goldman, 1990;Hughes and Waite, 2002;Rahman, 2013).…”

Climatic conditions and child height: Sex-specific vulnerability and the protective effects of sanitation and food markets in Nepal

“…Adverse conditions in utero and during the first two years of life can cause high perinatal mortality and subsequent stunting (Coffey, 2015) as well as low weight and anemia (Kumar et al, 2016), low economic productivity (Paxson and Schady, 2007, Hoddinott et al, 2013), and less academic success (Schultz-Nielsen et al, 2016). Affected children may also have higher odds of developing cardiovascular disease and other conditions (Popkin et al, 1996, Sawaya et al, 2003), as set forth in the fetal origins hypothesis of Barker (1995).…”

Education, gender, and state-level disparities in the health of older Indians: Evidence from biomarker data

“…Kerala also had more favorable statistics for females, including a higher ratio of girls to boys and higher school attendance rates. These economic factors likely contribute to regional differences in health outcomes which have also been documented for India, including obesity, underweight, and infant mortality (Ackerson et al, 2008; Coffey, 2015). …”