Does childhood health affect chronic morbidity in later life?

Our analysis examines whether childhood health has long-term and enduring c onsequences for chronic morbidity. As a part of this analysis, we address t wo methodological issues of concern in the literature. Is adult height a su rrogate for childhood health experiences in modeling chronic disease in lat er life? And, are the effects of adult socioeconomic status on chronic dise ase overestimated when childhood health is not accounted for? The analysis is based on a topical module to the third wave of the Health and Retirement Study, a representative survey of Americans aged 55-65 in 1996. Our result s support the hypothesis that poor childhood health increases morbidity in later life. This association was found for cancer, lung disease, cardiovasc ular conditions, and arthritis/rheumatism. The associations were highly per sistent in the face of statistical controls for both adult and childhood so cioeconomic status. No support was found for using adult height as a proxy for the effects of childhood health experiences. Further, the effects of ad ult socioeconomic status were not overestimated when childhood health was e xcluded from the explanatory models. Our results point to the importance of an integrated health care policy based on the premise of maximizing health over the entire life cycle. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights rese rved.