Body height, birth cohort and social background in Finland and Sweden

Background: Poor childhood living conditions are associated with short stat ure. Before the Second World War Finland had much lower living standards th an Sweden, but this gap had largely disappeared by the 1970s, Body height d ifferences were examined by birth cohort, economic difficulties in childhoo d and adult socioeconomic position in Finland and Sweden. Methods: Two nati onally representative data sets were used (n=7,300 in Finland and n=4,551 i n Sweden). Three indicators of social background were included, i.e. econom ic difficulties in childhood, education and occupational class. The methods used were direct age-standardisation, index of dissimilarity and regressio n analysis. Results: In the cohort born in 1920-1929 body height was taller in Sweden (175.8 cm among men and 163.7 cm among women) than in Finland (1 73.9 and 161.2 cm respectively). Body height by birth cohort increased fast er in Finland, with the result that, in the cohort born in 1960-1969, the g ap between the countries had narrowed to 0.8 cm among men and 0.3 cm among women. Body height differences by social background were larger in Finland than in Sweden. Socioeconomic body height differences have remained largely stable over the birth cohorts in both countries. Conclusions: The results suggest that differential economic development is partly seen in the narrow ing of body height differences between Finland and Sweden. However, socioec onomic differences in body height have remained largely similar over the bi rth cohorts studied and between Finland and Sweden.