Deaton Angus
Woodrow Wilson School and Economics Department, 328 Wallace Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 Aug 14;104(33):13232-7. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0611500104. Epub 2007 Aug 8.
Adult height is determined by genetic potential and by net nutrition, the balance between food intake and the demands on it, including the demands of disease, most importantly during early childhood. Historians have made effective use of recorded heights to indicate living standards, in both health and income, for periods where there are few other data. Understanding the determinants of height is also important for understanding health; taller people earn more on average, do better on cognitive tests, and live longer. This paper investigates the environmental determinants of height across 43 developing countries. Unlike in rich countries, where adult height is well predicted by mortality in infancy, there is no consistent relationship across and within countries between adult height on the one hand and childhood mortality or living conditions on the other. In particular, adult African women are taller than is warranted by their low incomes and high childhood mortality, not to mention their mothers' educational level and reported nutrition. High childhood mortality in Africa is associated with taller adults, which suggests that mortality selection dominates scarring, the opposite of what is found in the rest of the world. The relationship between population heights and income is inconsistent and unreliable, as is the relationship between income and health more generally.
成年人的身高由遗传潜力和净营养状况决定，净营养状况即食物摄入量与包括疾病需求（在幼儿期最为重要）在内的对食物的需求之间的平衡。历史学家有效地利用记录的身高数据来表明在几乎没有其他数据的时期内人们在健康和收入方面的生活水平。了解身高的决定因素对于理解健康状况也很重要；平均而言，个子较高的人收入更高，在认知测试中表现更好，寿命更长。本文研究了43个发展中国家身高的环境决定因素。与富裕国家不同，在富裕国家婴儿死亡率能很好地预测成年人身高，而在国家之间和国家内部，成年人身高与儿童死亡率或生活条件之间没有一致的关系。特别是，成年非洲女性的身高高于她们低收入、高儿童死亡率以及她们母亲的教育水平和所报告的营养状况所应有的身高。非洲高儿童死亡率与较高的成年人身高相关，这表明死亡选择主导了疤痕效应，这与世界其他地区的情况相反。人口身高与收入之间的关系以及更普遍的收入与健康之间的关系是不一致且不可靠的。
