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Short people, studies have shown, are
more likely to
-
have
a stroke
-
suffer
from high blood pressure and heart disease
-
be
bullied in school
Now, researchers report that short people,
at least in the past, are also more likely to die at a younger
age than their taller peers.
The study found that short
bones have correlated with short life for more
than 1,000 years. The investigators analyzed 490 sets of
adult skeletal remains from an archaeological site in northeastern
England, dating from the 9th century to about 1850.
About 55% of men and 73% of women died
before the age of 45, and 39% of men and 56% of women died
before age 30. The risk of death before age 30 declined
as bone length increased.
This analysis provides evidence from
an archaeological sample that long bone length is associated
with age at death -- those with smaller bones tend to die
younger.
While it is not clear why short stature
might be linked to earlier death, the researchers point
out that height is an
indicator of childhood nutrition, which may have
long-lasting effects on health.
Mechanisms for height-mortality associations
in the past may differ from those today, for example, short
stature may have increased the risk of death in childbirth
and this may account for the higher risk of premature mortality
in women.
Short bones, it would appear, have always
been a marker of a short life.
However
Thomas Samaras says longevity is more likely in short people.
Samaras is the author of "The Truth
About Your Height" and the director of the San Diego-based
Reventropy Associates, a research organization that studies
height, health, resource consumption and performance.
He notes that a 40-year epidemiological
study of more than 10,000 Scottish men and women, which
was published last year in the journal Public Health, found
that "no substantial or statistically significant associations
were seen between height and all-cause or all-cancer mortality
in either sex."
He adds that more than 20
studies either found no relation between greater height
and longevity, or found a link between taller people and
greater mortality rates.
"The reasons for conflicting findings
are related to the fact that height is not the only factor
related to the health and longevity picture," Samaras
says. Socioeconomic status, education level, smoking, diet,
exercise and quality of medical care are some of the other
factors, he says.
The author's findings did not account
for socioeconomic status," Samaras says. "Taller
people tend to be more often of higher socioeconomic classes,
and this can make a big difference in mortality."
Samaras says that some studies have
found that people in lower socioeconomic groups have four
times the death rate of those in the richest class. "This
could certainly incorrectly indicate that taller people
are healthier when in fact they are healthier because they
come from higher socioeconomic classes."
Journal
of Epidemiology and Community Health 2001; 55:505-507
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