Mothers of small-bodied children and fathers of vigorous sons live longer

Life-history traits (traits directly related to survival and reproduction) co-evolve and materialize through physiology and behavior. Accordingly, lifespan can be hypothesized as a potentially informative marker of life-history speed that subsumes the impact of diverse morphometric and behavioral traits. We examined associations between parental longevity and various anthropometric traits in a sample of 4,000-11,000 Estonian children in the middle of the 20th century. The offspring phenotype was used as a proxy measure of parental genotype, so that covariation between offspring traits and parental longevity (defined as belonging to the 90th percentile of lifespan) could be used to characterize the aggregation between longevity and anthropometric traits. We predicted that larger linear dimensions of offspring associate with increased parental longevity and that testosterone-dependent traits associate with reduced paternal longevity. Twelve of 16 offspring traits were associated with mothers' longevity, while three traits (rate of sexual maturation of daughters and grip strength and lung capacity of sons) robustly predicted fathers' longevity. Contrary to predictions, mothers of children with small bodily dimensions lived longer, and paternal longevity was not linearly associated with their children's body size (or testosterone-related traits). Our study thus failed to find evidence that high somatic investment into brain and body growth clusters with a long lifespan across generations, and/or that such associations can be detected on the basis of inter-generational phenotypic correlations.

Socioeconomic factors and intergenerational differences in height of Portuguese adults born in 1990: results from the EPITeen cohort

Average adult height is an indicator of population health and a marker of socioeconomic inequalities. This study aimed to assess how socioeconomic differences affect intergenerational height increase between adults born in 1990 and their parents. Data from a population-based cohort of subjects born in 1990 (EPITeen) were analysed. Participants' adult height was objectively measured. Parental height, education, and occupation were reported by the parents. The height difference between daughters and their mothers (n=707), and sons and their fathers (n=647) was calculated. A generalised linear model was used to assess the association between parental education and occupation, separately, and the intergenerational height difference, adjusted for maternal age at birth, smoking during pregnancy, birthweight adjusted for gestational age, and birth order. Females were on average 1.46cm (SD=6.62) taller than their mothers, and males 3.00cm (SD=7.26) taller than their fathers. The highest height gain was shown in those with less advantaged socioeconomic background. In the adjusted model, sons whose mothers had 0-6 years of education grew 3.9cm taller (β=3.894; 95%CI:2.345;5.443) and daughters 1.5cm taller (β=1.529; 95%CI:0.180;2.878) (compared to >12y maternal education); for paternal education, sons and daughters grew 3.5cm (β=3.480; 95%CI:1.913;5.047) and 1.9cm taller (β=1.895; 95%CI:0.526;3.265), respectively. A higher height increase was found in participants with less advantaged maternal and paternal occupational level. Adults born in 1990 are taller than their parents, and height gain was higher in males than females. Adults from a lower socioeconomic status experienced the highest height gain, suggesting a reduction in height inequality.

Body height among adult male and female Swiss Health Survey participants in 2017: Trends by birth years and associations with self-reported health status and life satisfaction

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Increase in average body height had slowed down from around the 1970s birth cohorts.

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Women and men with tertiary education levels were taller than participants holding other education levels.

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Taller participants were less overweighted and were more satisfied with their lives than shorter participants.

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Taller participants had better overall health than shorter participants.

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Taller men were more likely to have lower back pain than shorter men.

The increase in adult height for 150 years is linked to overall improvements in nutrition, hygiene, and living standards. Height is positively associated with general health and success on various levels (e.g. quality of life, earnings or happiness). The aim of this study was to investigate whether different subgroups show different trends across birth cohorts. We wanted to know whether taller individuals considered themselves as healthier and their quality of life as better than shorter individuals.

We included 19,435 participants from the Swiss population-based Health Survey 2017. GAM were used to assess nonlinear associations between height and birth year. Multinomial logistic regression was used to predict probabilities of self-rated health in relation to height.

The increase in average height slows down from the 1970s birth cohorts. Participants with parents from Central/Northern/Western Europe (men 177.9 cm, women: 165.1 cm) or Eastern Europe (men 178.7 cm, women: 165.7 cm) were taller than participants with parents from South America (men 174.3 cm, women: 161. cm) and Asia (men 173.2 cm, women: 160.1 cm). Participants with tertiary education were taller than participants from education levels (mean difference men: 4.5 cm, women: 5.0 cm). Height was positively associated with self-declared aspects of health and life satisfaction.

These results support the conclusion that body height as a co-factor of health aspects should be considered in public health research. Although adult body height can no longer be influenced, nutritional status and thus also healthy growth can be influenced in childhood by public health programs, by eliminating social inequalities, and by strengthen healthy living conditions.

How democracy alters our view of inequality - and what it means for our health

BACKGROUND

Income inequality is associated with poor health when economic disparities are especially salient. Yet, political institutions may alter this relationship because democracies (as opposed to autocracies) may be more inclined to frame inequalities in negative rather than positive ways. Living in a particular political system potentially alters the messages individuals receive about whether inequality is large or small, good or bad, and this, in turn, might affect whether beliefs about inequality influence health. Further, media coverage of economic inequality may negatively affect health if it contributes toward the general perception that the gap between rich and poor has gone up, even if there has been no change in income differentials.

METHODS

In this study, we explore the relationship between democracy, perceptions of inequality, and self-rated health across 28 post-communist countries using survey and macro-level data, multilevel regression models, and inverse probability weighting to estimate the average treatment effect on the treated.

RESULTS

We find that self-rated health is higher in more democratic countries and lower among people who believe that inequality has risen in the last few years. Moreover, we observe that people in democracies are more likely to learn about rising inequality through watching television and that when they do it has a more harmful effect on their health than when people in autocracies learn about rising inequality through the same channel, suggesting that in countries where there is less trust in the television media learning about rising inequality is not as harmful for health.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results indicate that while democracies are generally good for well-being, they may not be unambiguously positive for health. This does not mean, of course, that inequality is good for health nor that, on average, autocracies have better health than democracies; but rather that being more aware of inequality can negatively affect self-rated health.

BMI and dissatisfaction with life: contextual factors and socioemotional costs of obesity

Purpose

In this study, we investigate whether individuals’ BMI categories are associated with being dissatisfied with one’s life, how this association is affected by the social comparison that individuals make, and what the role of the overall BMI levels in this process is.

Methods

We use data for 21,577 men and 27,415 women, collected in 2016 by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, from 34 countries in Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia. To understand the moderating effect of contextual environment, we use multilevel mixed effect logistic regression models and data for national, regional, and cohort-specific BMI levels.

Result

We find that the association of BMI and dissatisfaction with life differs by gender, with overweight men being less likely to be dissatisfied with life than men with normal weight and obese women being more likely to be dissatisfied with life compared to women with normal weight. For contextual effects, we find that obese women in regions with low BMI levels are more likely to be dissatisfied with life. The effect of obesity on female life dissatisfaction is not observed in regions with high BMI levels. As for men, regional BMI levels affect the levels of life dissatisfaction but only for underweight men.

Conclusions

Our study adds additional nuance to the quality-of-life research by showing that the association between BMI and decreased life satisfaction is, at least partially, moderated by the contextual environment, and that the character of these effects differs by gender.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11136-021-02912-3.

Risk factors for femoral fracture in lateral decubitus direct anterior approach total hip arthroplasty using conventional stems: a retrospective analysis

OBJECTIVE

To provide guidelines for surgery and reduce the incidence of fracture, this study analyzed the relationship between femoral fracture and related factors in direct anterior approach (DAA) total hip arthroplasty (THA) in the lateral decubitus position.

METHOD

A retrospective series of 273 consecutive patients who underwent THA with the DAA in the lateral decubitus position was analyzed. Each surgery was performed by the same surgeon with a conventional operation bed and femoral stem. The correlations between the incidence of fracture and sex, age, body mass index (BMI), height, osteoporosis, the anterior superior iliac spine-greater trochanter distance (ASIS-GTD), and hip joint disease were analyzed by univariate analysis and logistic regression analysis.

RESULTS

Among all hip arthroplasty procedures, 35 hips had femoral fractures, including 30 greater trochanter fractures, 4 proximal femoral splits, and 1 femoral perforation. The incidence of fracture was 12.82%. Univariate analysis showed no significant difference in the incidence of fracture by sex, BMI, or age. However, osteoporosis caused an increase in the incidence of fracture, while the incidence of fracture decreased as height and the ASIS-GTD increased. The incidence of femoral neck fracture was lower in cases of osteonecrosis of the femoral head than in cases of other diseases. Logistic regression showed a significant correlation between osteoporosis, the ASIS-GTD, and fractures. Patients with osteoporosis had a high possibility of fracture (OR = 2.414); the possibility of fracture decreased with increasing ASIS-GTD (OR = 0.938).

CONCLUSION

Lateral decubitus DAA THA can be successfully performed using a conventional operation bed and stem, effectively saving medical resources. Osteoporosis and a shorter ASIS-GTD were independent risk factors for femoral fracture.

Influence of height on likelihood of employment, occupational sorting, and earnings in 27 post-communist countries

OBJECTIVES

We study the influence of height on labour market outcomes using micro-data from a recent survey that cover 27 post-communist countries. Specifically, we focus on the influence of height on three dimensions of labour market outcome: (1) likelihood of employment, (2) occupational sorting, and (3) earnings.

METHODS

We use micro-data from 2016 Life-In-Transition survey (LITS) which was jointly conducted by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank. We run several types of regression to show how height influences (1) likelihood of employment, (2) occupational sorting, and (3) earnings.

RESULTS

When controlling for a comprehensive set of covariates, for each 10 cm increase in height, the probability of getting a job increases by 1% points for males and by 3 for females. Equally, for each 10 cm increase in height, the probability of getting a job increases by 2% points in urban areas and rural areas. Our findings demonstrate that taller women and men are more likely: (a) being an employer rather than an employee; (b) to be employed in higher-paid and more prestigious sectors of finance, insurance, and real estate; (c) to be employed in private enterprises. Finally, when occupational sorting and socio-demographics are controlled for, a 10 cm increase in height results in a 5% increase in earning for men, and a 12% increase in earnings for women.

CONCLUSIONS

Using a diverse sample of 27 post-communist countries, we found that taller individuals have better labour market outcomes in terms of employment, occupational sorting, and earnings.