The great transformation: A long-run perspective on physical well-being in Canada

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Abstract

During the 19th century the physical stature of the Canadian-born stagnated or declined slightly in spite of a substantial increase in income. Stature varied regionally within Canada. The Quebec population was especially short; men in the Atlantic coastal region were taller than their low incomes would lead us to expect. Heights increased dramatically in the 20th Century. The pattern of long-run change is consistent with evidence of age-specific mortality and with the relationship between income and physical well-being envisaged by Preston [Preston, S., 1975. The changing relationship between mortality and the level of economic development. Popul. Stud. 29, 231–248]. The transition from stagnant or declining stature to secular increase points to a dramatic shift ca. 1900 in the evolution of the physical standard of living in Canada.

Introduction

Most populations experienced a marked increase in physical stature during the 20th century (Bielicki, 1986, Fogel et al., 1982, Fogel et al., 1983, Van Wieringen, 1986). In a number of societies, however, average height is known to have declined or remained unchanged for large parts of the 19th century (Costa and Steckel, 1997, Fogel, 1986a, Fogel, 1986b, Komlos, 1989, Komlos, 1998, Margo and Steckel, 1983). The latter experience is remarkable because income was increasing, and with it the ability to improve nutrition, housing and other factors that arguably would have improved the physical standard of living and potential for stature increase. Stagnating and declining stature in the early stages of industrialization has been understood as a byproduct of economic growth that heightened social inequalities, increased the relative price of key foodstuffs, demanded more work effort from some people, and increased exposure to disease through urbanization and transportation improvements (Haines, 2004, Komlos, 1985, Komlos, 1987, Komlos, 1996, Steckel, 1995; Steckel and Floud, 1997). These factors exerted a depressing influence on stature through their adverse impact on ‘net nutrition’, or nutrition after allowing for losses through work, climate and disease.

Another way to consider this experience is suggested by Preston's argument that income growth contributes to mortality reduction but at a diminishing rate, and that other forces alter the relationship between income and mortality in important ways and hence influence life expectancy (Preston, 1975). Demographic researchers continue to rely on this framework and have extended it other aspects of human health (Cutler et al., 2006, Deaton, 2002, Deaton, 2003, Easterlin, 1998). The same framework informs our understanding of changes in physical stature. Specifically, there are diminishing returns to the effect of income on height, and cultural, organizational and technological changes have the potential to shift the relationship between income and stature in a positive or negative direction. For example, advances in medical and public health knowledge, improvements in the social capability to take advantage of them and evolving preferences for diet and personal health practices might cause an upward shift in the income–height relationship and thereby reinforce the impact of income growth. Other changes such as an increase in the relative price of protein-rich food, deteriorating work-regimes, urbanization and disease exposure and, at the level of an entire community, heightened social inequality may have the opposite effect. The net effect of positive and negative influences in a particular community depends on their strength, the nature of income change and, given its declining marginal importance, the level of income.

As yet, Canada has attracted little attention in the anthropometric literature. We hypothesize that Canada experienced a great transformation in stature similar to that of other societies in the north Atlantic community. Specifically, we argue that physical stature in Canada although large by international standards declined slowly in the 19th century (or at best remained unchanged) in contrast to the 20th century experience of a dramatic secular increase. We also consider consistency with other health indicators, undertake preliminary analysis on the 19th century data and situate the Canadian experience in an international context.

Section snippets

Physical stature in 19th-century Canada

Little is known about height or other aspects of physical well-being in 19th century Canada except on birth weight; Ward and Ward (1984) document a decline in birth weights in Montreal towards the end of the 19th century. An examination of Northwest Police recruiting files shows an increase in height from the 1870s to the end of the century (Dick, 1995). The significance of this evidence is weakened by lack of birth-place or birth-date information in most of the files. Moreover, the Northwest

Regional patterns

The large size and diversity of Canada, and changes in regional composition during the 19th century, make it possible that national data do not fairly represent regional development. We consider regional evidence for Ontario, Quebec, the Maritime Provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland) and western Canada (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia and ‘unorganized’ territories).

Evidence from the South African War and WW I data (Table 3) suggest that

Multivariate analysis of regional, cohort and occupation effects

Multivariate regression analysis of the prison records does not require specification of a minimum height requirement although sample size forces us to ignore the western-born. We test the hypothesis that farmers and others in farm-related occupations may have been taller because of living (and probably growing up) in rural areas that were closer to food supplies and less exposed to infectious disease and urban environmental contamination. Specification of a farm variable also ensures that the

Growth of physical stature during the 20th-century

The earliest evidence for those who reached adulthood in the 20th century was collected from Toronto school children by the anthropologist Frans Boas during the 1891–1892 school year (Boas, 1895, Boas, 1898). These data may be compared with studies of Toronto school children undertaken on similar principles in 1923 and 1939 (Keyfitz, 1942). Precision is diminished by small sample size at some ages and exclusion from the 1892 study of parochial school children, but the surveys were large enough

Consistency with other sources

If physical well-being evolved in ways that are reflected in stature, then we might expect to see parallel changes in other indicators. Fogel, Waaler and others point to evidence of correlation between stature and mortality risk (Costa, 1993, Fogel, 1986b, Haines, 2004, Haines et al., 2003, Waaler, 1983). Yet, attempts to corroborate the finding are not universally successful (Costa, 2003, Costa, 2004, Murray, 1997, Johansson, 2005). The diversity of result may reflect particularities of sample

Conclusion

The demographic evidence, although fragmentary, is consistent with the evidence of physical stature taken from military and prison records. Neither stature nor mortality appear to have improved during the 19th century; indeed there are some signs of a deterioration in stature from those born in the 1820s to the 1840s (Union Army), from the 1850s to the 1860s (Kingston prison), from the 1860s to the 1870s (South African War), from the 1870s to the 1880s in eastern Canada (WW I) and from the

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