The impact of early-life economic conditionson cause-specific mortality during adulthood

Gary Y.C. Yeung, Gerard J. van den Berg, Maarten Lindeboom, France R.M. Portrait

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The aim of this study is to assess the effects of economic conditions in early life on cause-specific mortality during adulthood. The analyses are performed on a unique historical sample of 14,520 Dutch individuals born in 1880-1918, who are followed throughout life. The economic conditions in early life are characterized using cyclical variations in annual real per capital gross domestic product during pregnancy and the first year of life. Exposure to recessions in early life appears to significantly increase cancer mortality risks of older males and females. It also significantly increases other mortality risks especially for older females. The residual life expectancies are up to about 8 and 6 % lower for male and female cancer mortality, respectively, and up to about 5 % lower for female cardiovascular mortality. Our analyses show that cardiovascular and cancer mortality risks are related and that not taking this association into account leads to biased inference.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)895-919
Number of pages25
JournalJournal of Population Economics
Volume27
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2014
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Cancer
  • Cardiovascular disease
  • Competing mortality risks
  • Life expectancy
  • Recession
  • Survival analyses

Cite this