International Journal of Epidemiology, Vol 28, 911-918, Copyright © 1999 by International Epidemiological Association
K Silventoinen, E Lahelma and O Rahkonen
STUDY OBJECTIVE: To study the socio-demographic determinants of body-
height and the bearing of these determinants on the association between
body-height and health among Finnish adults. DATA AND METHOD: Cross-
sectional population survey including questions on social background,
body-height and health, and retrospective questions on childhood living
conditions. The data derive from a representative Survey on Living
Conditions collected by Statistics Finland in 1994. The response rate was
73%. Male and female respondents > or =20 years were included in the
analysis (N = 8212). Statistical methods include regression analysis and
logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Body-height was strongly associated
with year of birth, region, childhood living conditions and education among
adult men and women. Body-height was also associated with limiting
long-standing illness and perceived health as below good. Tall men had the
best health and short men the poorest health. Among women the association
of body-height with health differed from men, as tall women showed high
levels of limiting long- standing illness, notably musculo-skeletal
diseases. Adjusting for the background variables weakened but did not
abolish the association between poor health and short stature among men and
women. CONCLUSIONS: Short stature is associated with poor health among
Finnish men and women. A non-linear association among women was found for
musculo- skeletal diseases. The studied social background factors explained
only little of the association between body-height and health.
ARTICLES
Social background, adult body-height and health
Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Finland. karri.silventoinen@helsinki.fi
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