(applicant s abstract): This project will study the impact of early-life conditions and prevailing living conditions such as socioeconomic status, nutrition, and the disease environment, on longevity. More specifically, the extent to which changes over the life course and prevailing living conditions interact with, and alter the impact of experiences early in life, will be considered. By using a unique longitudinal database at the individual level, together with appropriate statistical methods, it will be possible to empirically test several hypotheses that have been much debated in demographic and epidemiological research, and to shed new light on long-term processes. The database includes cause-specific mortality and economic information at the individual, family, and community levels.
| Alter, George; Dribe, Martin; Van Poppel, Frans (2007) Widowhood, family size, and post-reproductive mortality: a comparative analysis of three populations in nineteenth-century Europe. Demography 44:785-806 |
| Alter, George; Oris, Michel (2005) Childhood conditions, migration, and mortality: migrants and natives in 19th-century cities. Soc Biol 52:178-91 |
| Dribe, Martin (2004) Long-term effects of childbearing on mortality: evidence from pre-industrial Sweden. Popul Stud (Camb) 58:297-310 |
| Alter, George (2004) Height, frailty, and the standard of living: modelling the effects of diet and disease on declining mortality and increasing height. Popul Stud (Camb) 58:265-79 |
| Bengtsson, Tommy; Lindstrom, Martin (2003) Airborne infectious diseases during infancy and mortality in later life in southern Sweden, 1766-1894. Int J Epidemiol 32:286-94 |
