Height and health: predicting longevity from bone length in archaeological remains

Abstract

Contemporary studies show that taller people live longer. 1 2 Short stature is particularly associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular and respiratory mortality.2 It is uncertain whether this association existed in earlier generations, when disease patterns were quite different.Before the 19th century the main causes of death were infection, malnutrition, accidents and childbirth.Here we report an analysis of the association between bone length, a marker of stature, and age at death based on the skeletal remains of 490 subjects obtained from an archaeological investigation in Barton on Humber.Our aim was to determine whether height-mortality associations existed in earlier generations.

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