Grow fast, die young? The causes and consequences of adult height and prolonged growth in nineteenth century Maastricht

Background: Both adult body height and the developmental growth trajectory have been found to be important predictors of later-life mortality. However, evidence for these relationships largely comes from contemporary populations, where most people live until old-age. It is an open question how height and growth impact later-life mortality in a population where death before old-age is more common. We therefore study the causes and mortality consequences of height and growth in a high-mortality, nineteenth-century Dutch population. Methods: We exploit a unique dataset from three sources: conscri... Mehr ...