Skip Navigation


IJE Advance Access originally published online on May 24, 2006
International Journal of Epidemiology 2006 35(5):1264-1269; doi:10.1093/ije/dyl108
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
35/5/1264    most recent
dyl108v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (8)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Catalano, R.
Right arrow Articles by Bruckner, T.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Catalano, R.
Right arrow Articles by Bruckner, T.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Epidemiological Association © The Author 2006; all rights reserved.

Article

Child mortality and cohort lifespan: a test of diminished entelechy

Ralph Catalano* and Tim Bruckner

School of Public Health, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

* Corresponding author. E-mail: rayc{at}berkeley.edu

Background The literature implies a ‘diminished entelechy’ hypothesis in which birth cohorts subjected to relatively many or relatively virulent environmental insults early in life do not realize their otherwise expected lifespan. No direct test of this hypothesis appears in literature.

Methods We test the hypothesis directly by measuring the association between mortality in the first 5 years and life expectancy at age 5 for male and female cohorts born in Sweden (1751–1912), Denmark (1835–1913), and England and Wales (1841–1912). The methods control for trends, seasonal cycles, and other forms of autocorrelation that could induce spurious associations.

Results Our results support the hypothesis in that life expectancy at age 5 fell below the values expected from history in cohorts in which child mortality before age 5 increased over its expected value. We find no evidence for culling effects in which a cohort remaining after suffering relatively many environmental insults may be smaller but hardier than expected.

Conclusions These findings converge with individual-level studies and suggest that suffering relatively virulent or many environmental insults during childhood reduces the subsequent lifespan of birth cohorts.

Keywords Cohort effect, child mortality, life expectancy, longevity, life course

Accepted 26 April 2006


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Int J EpidemiolHome page
S. EBRAHIM
Entelechy, citation indexes, and the association of ideas
Int. J. Epidemiol., October 1, 2006; 35(5): 1117 - 1118.
[Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Int J EpidemiolHome page
E. M Crimmins and C. E Finch
Commentary: Do older men and women gain equally from improving childhood conditions?
Int. J. Epidemiol., October 1, 2006; 35(5): 1270 - 1271.
[Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Int J EpidemiolHome page
J. Lynch
It's not easy being interdisciplinary
Int. J. Epidemiol., October 1, 2006; 35(5): 1119 - 1122.
[Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.