Social background, adult body-height and health

Karri Silventoinen · Eero T. Lahelma · Ossi Rahkonen

135 citations0/0 files storedInternational Journal of Epidemiology

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Health disparities and outcomes Birth, Development, and Health Public Health and Social Inequalities

Abstract

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To study the socio-demographic determinants of body-height and the bearing of these determinants on the association between body-height and health among Finnish adults. DATA AND METHOD: Cross-sectional population survey including questions on social background, body-height and health, and retrospective questions on childhood living conditions. The data derive from a representative Survey on Living Conditions collected by Statistics Finland in 1994. The response rate was 73%. Male and female respondents > or =20 years were included in the analysis (N = 8212). Statistical methods include regression analysis and logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Body-height was strongly associated with year of birth, region, childhood living conditions and education among adult men and women. Body-height was also associated with limiting long-standing illness and perceived health as below good. Tall men had the best health and short men the poorest health. Among women the association of body-height with health differed from men, as tall women showed high levels of limiting long-standing illness, notably musculo-skeletal diseases. Adjusting for the background variables weakened but did not abolish the association between poor health and short stature among men and women. CONCLUSIONS: Short stature is associated with poor health among Finnish men and women. A non-linear association among women was found for musculo-skeletal diseases. The studied social background factors explained only little of the association between body-height and health.

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