Abstract
This paper presents an approach that assesses the role of early life and contemporaneous macroconditions in explaining health at older ages. In particular, we investigate the role of exposure to diseases and economic conditions during infancy and childhood, as well as the effect of current health care facilities. Specific attention is paid to the impact of unobserved heterogeneity, selective attrition, and omitted relevant macrovariables. We apply our approach to self-reports on functional limitations of Dutch older individuals. The prevalence of functional limitations is found to increase in the 1990s, in part due to restricted access to hospital care.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Almond DV (2006) Is the 1918 influenza pandemic over? Long-term effects of in utero influenza exposure in the post-1940 U.S. population. J Polit Econ 114(4):672–712
Alwin DF, McCammon RJ (2001) Aging, cohorts, and verbal ability. J Gerontol Soc Sci 56B(3):S151–S161
Barker DJP (1998) Mothers, babies, and health in later life, 2nd edn. Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh
Bengtsson T, Lindstrom M (2003) Airborne infectious diseases during infancy and mortality in later life in southern Sweden, 1766–1894. Int J Epidemiol 32(2):286–294
van den Berg G, Lindeboom M, Portrait F (2006) Economic conditions early in life and individual mortality. Am Econ Rev 96(1):290–302
Boshuizen HC, Chorus AMJ, Deeg DJH (2000) Test-retest reliability of the OECD questionnaire for physical limitations. Tijdschr Gezondheidswet 78(3):172–179 (In Dutch)
Chatterjee S, Hadi AS, Price B (2000) Regression analyses by example, 3rd edn. Wiley, New York
Crimmins EM, Finch CE (2006) Infection, inflammation, height, and longevity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 103(2):498–503
Deeg DJH, Westendorp de Serière M (1994) Autonomy and well-being in the aging population, report from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam 1992–1993, 1st edn. VU University Press, Amsterdam
Deeg DJH, Beekman ATF, Kriegsman DMW, Westendorp de Serière M (1998) Autonomy and well-being in the aging population 2, report from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam 1992–1996, 1st edn. VU University Press, Amsterdam
Deeg DJH, van Tilburg T, Smit JH, de Leeuw ED (2002) Attrition in the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam: the effect of differential inclusion in side studies. J Clin Epidemiol 55(4):319–328
Doblhammer G, Vaupel JW (2001) Lifespan depends on month of birth. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 98(5):2934–2939
Fitzenberger B, Hujer R, MaCurdy TE, Schnabel R (2001) Testing for uniform wage trends in West-Germany: a cohort analysis using quantile regressions for censored data. Empir Econ 26(1):41–86
Fogel R (1994) The relevance of Malthus for the study of mortality today: long-run influences on health, mortality, labor force participation, and population growth. In: Lindahl-Kiessling K, Lamberg H (eds). Population, economic development and the environment, 1st edn. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 231–261
Fridlizius G (1989) The deformation of cohorts. Nineteenth century mortality in a generational perspective. Scand Econ Hist Rev 37(3):3–17
Gosling A, Machin S, Meghir C (2000) The changing distribution of male wages in the U.K. Rev Econ Stud 67(4):635–666
Heckman J, Robb R (1985) Using longitudinal data to estimate age, period and cohort effects in earning equations. In: Mason W, Fienberg S (eds) Cohort analysis in social research beyond the identification problem, 1st edn. Springer, New York
Hoeymans N, Feskens EJM, van den Bos GAM, Kromhout D (1997) Age, time, and cohort effects on functional status and self-rated health in elderly men. Am J Public Health 87(10):1620–1625
Kapteyn A, Alessie R, Lusardi A (2005) Explaining the wealth holding of different cohorts: productivity growth and social security. Eur Econ Rev 49(5):1361–1391
Kuh D, Ben-Shlomo Y (2004) A life course approach to chronic disease epidemiology, 2nd edn. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Kriegsman DMW, Deeg DJH, van Eijk TM, Penninx BWJH, Boeke AJP (1997) Do disease specific characteristics add to the explanation of mobility limitations in patients with different chronic diseases? A study in the Netherlands. J Epidemiol Community Health 51(4):676–685
Mackenbach JP (1996) The contribution of medical care to mortality decline: Mc Keown revisited. J Clin Epidemiol 49(11):1207–1213
MaCurdy TE, Mroz T (1995) Measuring macroeconomic shifts in Wages from cohort specifications. Stanford University and University of North Carolina
McWhinnie JR (1981) Disability assessment in population surveys: results of the OECD common development effort. Rev Épidémiol Santé Publique 29(4):413–419
Mason WH, Fienberg SE (1985) Cohort analysis in social research: beyond the identification problem, 1st edn. Springer, New York
Mundlak Y (1978) On the pooling of time series and cross section data. Econometrica 46(1):69–85
Nydegger CN (1981) On being caught up in time. Hum Dev 24(11):1–12
Perenboom RJM, Herten LM, Boshuizen HC, van den Bos GA (2004) Trends in disability-free life expectancy. Disabil Rehabil 26(7):377–386
Portrait F (2000) Long-term care services for the Dutch elderly—an investigation into the process of utilization. Thesis VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam
Reynolds SL, Crimmins EM, Saito YS (1998) Cohort differences in disability and disease presence. Gerontologist 38(5):578–590
Roseboom TJ, Meulen van der JH, Osmond C, Barker DJP, Bleker OP (2001) Effects of prenatal exposure to the Dutch famine on adult disease in later life: an overview. Twin Res 4(5):293–298
Ruhm C (2008) Macroeconomic conditions, health and government policy. In: Schoeni RF, House JS, Kaplan GA, Pollack H (eds) Social and economic policy as health policy: rethinking Americas approach to improving health. Russell-Sage, New York (in press)
Schultz TP (1984) Studying the impact of household economic and community variables on child mortality. Child survival. Strategies for research. Popul Dev Rev 10:215–235 (Suppl)
Sixma H, Ultee WC (1983) Occupational prestige score for the Netherlands in the eighties. Mens Maatsch 58(1):360–382 (in Dutch)
Smits CHM, Deeg DJH, Jonker C (1997) Cognitive and emotional predictors of disablement in older adults. J Aging Health 9(2):204–221
Sonsbeek van JLA (1988) Methodological and substantial aspects of the OECD questionnaire regarding long-term limitations in physical functioning (in Dutch). Maandber Gezondh 6:4–17 (Central Bureau of Statistics, Netherlands)
Tabeau E, Tabeau A, van Poppel F, Willekens F (1994) Mortality by cohorts. Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI) Working papers
Verbeek M, Nijman T (1992) Testing for selectivity bias in panel data models. Int Econ Rev 33(3):681–703
Wooldridge JM (2002) Econometric analysis of cross section and panel data, 1st edn. MIT, Cambridge
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Responsible editor: Christian Dustmann
The Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA) is primarily supported by a long term grant from the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports. We thank the editor, three anonymous referees, and Adriaan Kalwij for helpful comments and suggestions.
Rights and permissions
Open Access This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
About this article
Cite this article
Portrait, F., Alessie, R. & Deeg, D. Do early life and contemporaneous macroconditions explain health at older ages?. J Popul Econ 23, 617–642 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-008-0213-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-008-0213-8