Abstract
How have health and social mortality risks changed over time? Evidence from pre-1945 cohorts is sparse, mostly from the United States, and evidence is mixed on long-term changes in the risk of being overweight. We develop a dataset of men entering the NZ army in the two world wars, with objectively measured height and weight, and socioeconomic status in early adulthood. Our sample includes significant numbers of indigenous Māori, providing estimates of weight and mortality risk in an indigenous population. We follow men from war's end until death, with data on more than 12,000 men from each war. Overweight and obesity were important risk factors for mortality, and associated with shorter life expectancy.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | 101472 |
| Journal | Explorations in Economic History |
| Volume | 86 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank the New Zealand Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages for access to confidential birth and death registers, Archives New Zealand for access to World War I personnel files, and the NZ Defence Force for access to World War II personnel files. Nicholas Radburn, Anthony Gerbi, and Mitchell Eckerson provided exemplary research assistance with record linkage. This work was supported by the Health Research Council under Grant HRC 08/231; and the Marsden Fund under Grant UoC 0807. Evan Roberts gratefully acknowledges further support from the Minnesota Population Center (P2CHD041023), funded through grants from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The Victoria University of Wellington Human Ethics Committee granted ethical permission for this research. We thank the editors of Explorations in Economic History, and two anonymous reviewers for their sustained critical and constructive engagement in making this paper better than it was at first submission.
Funding Information:
We thank the New Zealand Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages for access to confidential birth and death registers, Archives New Zealand for access to World War I personnel files, and the NZ Defence Force for access to World War II personnel files. Nicholas Radburn, Anthony Gerbi, and Mitchell Eckerson provided exemplary research assistance with record linkage. This work was supported by the Health Research Council under Grant HRC 08/231 ; and the Marsden Fund under Grant UoC 0807 . Evan Roberts gratefully acknowledges further support from the Minnesota Population Center ( P2CHD041023 ), funded through grants from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The Victoria University of Wellington Human Ethics Committee granted ethical permission for this research. We thank the editors of Explorations in Economic History, and two anonymous reviewers for their sustained critical and constructive engagement in making this paper better than it was at first submission.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022
