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

Poor childhood living conditions are associated with short stature. Before the Second World War Finland had much lower living standards than Sweden, but this gap had largely disappeared by the 1970s. Body height differences were examined by birth cohort, economic difficulties in childhood and adult socioeconomic position in Finland and Sweden.

Two nationally representative data sets were used (n = 7,300 in Finland and n = 4,551 in Sweden). Three indicators of social background were included, i.e. economic difficulties in childhood, education and occupational class. The methods used were direct age-standardisation, index of dissimilarity and regression analysis.

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 (173.9 and 161.2 cm respectively). Body height by birth cohort increased faster in Finland, with the result that, in the cohort born in 1960-1969, the gap 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.

The results suggest that differential economic development is partly seen in the narrowing of body height differences between Finland and Sweden. However, socioeconomic differences in body height have remained largely similar over the birth cohorts studied and between Finland and Sweden.