RAND Corporation, 1200 South Hayes Street, Arltington, VA 22202-5050, USA.
Econ Hum Biol. 2010 Jul;8(2):168-76. doi: 10.1016/j.ehb.2010.05.013. Epub 2010 May 27.
Building on previous evidence from the U.S., this study investigates the relationship between anthropometric markers (height and knee height), early-life conditions, education, and cognitive function in later life among urban elderly from Latin America and the Caribbean. I document a positive association between height and later-life cognitive function, which is larger for women than for men. This sex difference increases when I address potential feedback effects from mid- and later-life circumstances on stature by using knee height as an instrument for height. Specifically, while the estimates for women remain largely unchanged, I only find a diminished and statistically insignificant association between instrumented height and later-life cognition for men. This finding suggests that at least part of the association between height and later-life cognition among men may stem from common third factors that are correlated with both height and later-life cognition, such as adverse occupational exposures or health events during mid- and later life. Extended models that also include education further diminish the association between height and later-life cognition. Education displays strong positive gradients with the employed measures of childhood circumstances - including height - which points to education as a potential pathway linking early-life conditions and later-life cognitive function.
基于美国先前的证据，本研究调查了拉丁美洲和加勒比地区城市老年人的人体测量指标（身高和膝高）、早期生活条件、教育程度与晚年认知功能之间的关系。我记录到身高与晚年认知功能呈正相关，女性的相关性强于男性。当我使用膝高作为身高的工具变量来解决中晚年生活环境对身高的潜在反馈效应时，这种性别差异会增大。具体来说，虽然女性的估计值基本保持不变，但我只发现，对于男性来说，工具化身高与晚年认知之间的关联减弱且在统计学上无显著意义。这一发现表明，男性身高与晚年认知之间的关联至少部分可能源于与身高和晚年认知都相关的共同第三因素，例如中年和晚年期间的不利职业暴露或健康事件。包含教育程度的扩展模型进一步降低了身高与晚年认知之间的关联。教育程度与所采用的儿童时期环境指标（包括身高）呈显著正相关，这表明教育是将早期生活条件与晚年认知功能联系起来的一个潜在途径。
