ISBN: 3540221050
TITLE: The Late Life Legacy of Very Early Life
AUTHOR: Doblhammer
TOC:

1 The Demographic and Epidemiological Context 1
1.1 Cohort Studies 7
1.2 Ecological Studies and Place of Birth 10
1.3 The Fetal Origins Hypothesis of Adult Diseases 13
1.4 Life-Course Factors 15
1.5 Month of Birth 16
2 Month-of-Birth Patterns in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere 19
2.1 Life Span by Season of Birth 22
2.2 A Different Approach 30
2.3 Bias in the Month-of-Birth Pattern 31
3 Five Hypothesis 37
3.1 Seasonal Distribution of Deaths 37
3.1.1 A Descriptive Approach Based on Death Rates 39
3.1.2 An Event-History Model to Separate the Effect of Month of Birth, Age, and Current Month 43
3.1.3 A Model Based an Death Rates to Separate the Effect of Month of Birth, Age, and Current Month 46
3.2 The Procreational Habits Hypothesis 49
3.3 The Deadline Hypothesis 51
3.4 Selective Survival or Debilitation 53
3.5 Conclusion 57
4 Differences in Life Span by Month of Birth in the United States 61
4.1 Data 65
4.2 Methods 67
4.3 Results 69
4.4 Conclusion 76
5 Month of Birth and Causes of Death in the United States 81
5.1 Malignant Neoplasms 82
5.2 Diseases of the Circulatory System 86
5.3 Diseases of the Respiratory System and Infectious Diseases 88
5.4 Non-Natural Causes of Death 92
5.5 Diseases of the Nervous System and Psychiatric Disorders 93
5.6 Conclusion 95
6 Cohort and Age Effects 105
6.1 Method and Data 107
6.2 Results 111
6.2.1 Comparison of the Month-of-Birth Pattern in the Danish Register Data and the Danish Twin Data 111
6.2.2 Age-Specifc Mortality at Ages 50+ in the Danish Register Data 112
6.2.3 Age-Specific Mortality at Ages 20+ in the Danish Twin Data 116
6.2.4 US Census Data 119
6.3 Discussion and Conclusion 121
7 The Month-of-Birth Patterns of Migrants and Farmers 125
7.1 Data and Method 126
7.1.1 Migrants 126
7.1.2 Farmers, Non-Farmers and Farm Workers 127
7.2 Results 129
7.2.1 British Migration to Australia 129
7.2.2 Internal US Migration 132
7.2.3 The Month-of-Birth Patterns of Farmers, Non-Farmers, and Farm Workers 137
7.3 Conclusion 138
8 Does the Month-of-Birth Effect Exist in Cohorts Born Today? 141
8.1 Introduction 141
8.1.1 Birth Weight 143
8.1.2 Current Weight 144
8.1.3 Length at Birth and Height Gain During the First Year of Life 146
8.1.4 Current Height 146
8.2 Data and Method 147
8.3 Results 151
8.4 Conclusion 159
9 Summary 167
9.1 Early-Life Circumstances and Adult Mortality 167
9.2 How to Study the Effect of the Month of Birth on the Life Span? 170
9.3 The Month-of-Birth Effect Depends on the Season 172
9.4 The Month-of-Birth Pattern of Migrants 174
9.5 Alternative Hypotheses for the Month-of-Birth Effect 176
9.6 The Causal Mechanisms 178
9.7 Does the Month-of-Birth Effect Exist in Cohorts Born Today? 181
9.8 Summary of Accomplishments and Outlook 184
References 187
END
