Swiss Study Show That Divorced Men Are On Average Shorter Than Their Married Counterparts

I was looking through PubMed today and came across a little interesting article/study which looked at the socio-economic patterns of height. The abstract was the only thing that I could get but it did reveal something a little interesting. It was just a short segment but I do wonder what the implications of something like this would be.

PubMed study: “Taller – Healthier – more equal? The biological standard of living in Switzerland in the second half of the 20th century.”

  • Econ Hum Biol. 2010 Mar;8(1):67-79. doi: 10.1016/j.ehb.2009.09.002. Epub 2009 Sep 12.
  • Kues AB.
  • Source: journals@econhist.de

Abstract

This paper analyzes the trends in physical stature and body mass of the Swiss population born between 1955 and 1985, based on data collected in the “Living in Switzerland Survey” (Swiss Household Panel) of 2004. Aside from the time trend, we investigate the impact of educational and marital status as well as spatial effects on height and BMI. The results corroborate previous studies: average height increased during the second half of the 20th century for both women and men, better educated individuals are tallest, divorced men are shorter than married men and urban populations enjoy a height advantage over rural ones. We also compare the level and the trend in height to other postindustrial populations to identify key causes of physical growth and conclude that the quality of the health care systems and equal access to it seem to have a greater impact than other redistributive aspects of the welfare state. The relatively low level of inequality in health led to average height in Switzerland that are similar to those obtained in the Scandinavian social-democratic welfare states. Other measures such as income inequality do not have a high explanatory power for the average stature of the Swiss population.

Copyright 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

PMID:19797002 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

Analysis

Maybe more than just showing the relationship of how divorced men are shorter than their married counterpart, there was a few other things that this 30 year study between the years 1955-1985 of Switzerland revealed. These are the main things…

  1. better educated individuals are tallest
  2. urban populations enjoy a height advantage over rural ones
  3. the quality of the health care systems and equal access to it seem to have a greater impact than other redistributive aspects of the welfare state
  4. The relatively low level of inequality in health led to average height in Switzerland that are similar to those obtained in the Scandinavian social-democratic welfare states

So if you live in the city, you are a little taller than if you lived on a farm. If you are in the tallest group, you are more likely to be well educated.

Healthcare plays a huge part. Because of how equal it is in getting healthcare for everyone, the entire average height of switzerland has reached the level of height seen in the Northern Scandinavian countries.