Childhood circumstances and height among older adults in the United States

We investigated the association between adult height and three indicators of childhood circumstances: mother's education, childhood financial hardship, and childhood health in the United States. Cross-sectional analysis of adults aged 50 and older in the 2004 Health and Retirement Study (N = 14,079) was conducted. Gender and gender-race stratified regression models were used to model the association between adult height and childhood circumstances. The gender-stratified results showed a positive gradient association between mother's education and adult height; those reporting up to grade 8, high school graduate, and greater than high school education for their mother were 4.17 cm (p < 0.001), 4.92 cm (p < 0.001), and 5.83 cm (p < 0.001) taller for men and 2.57 cm (p < 0.001), 3.16 cm (p < 0.001), and 3.85 cm (p < 0.001) taller for women, respectively than those reporting no education for their mother. Childhood health was not statistically significantly associated with adult height, controlling for birth cohort, mother's education, and childhood financial hardship. Those who did not experience childhood financial hardship were slightly taller than those who did experience such hardship. Gender-race stratified results also showed a positive gradient association between mother's education and adult height; however, this association was only significant for white men and white women. The study reiterates the importance of childhood circumstances for adult height and for building health stock.

Research highlights▶ There exists a strong positive association between education of the mother and the offspring's adult height.▶ It appears that childhood socioeconomic status was more important than childhood health even though given the study design it would be difficult to establish this in causal terms.▶ The study reiterates the importance of childhood circumstances for adult height and for building health capital.