Does a prolonged hardship reduce life span? Examining the longevity of young men who lived through the 1930s Great Plains drought

Bibliographic Data

ID11386933
AuthorsSerge Atherwood (0000-0001-9434-1401, University of California, Berkeley, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume43
Issue4
Pages530-552
Publication date2022-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePopulation and Environment (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0199-0039 • E-ISSN: 1573-7810
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s11111-022-00398-w
OpenAlexW4229012149
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited74

The Great Plains drought of 1931–1939 was a prolonged socio-ecological disaster with widespread impacts on society, economy, and health. While its immediate impacts are well documented, we know much less about the disaster’s effects on distal human outcomes. In particular, the event’s effects on later life mortality remain almost entirely unexplored. Closing this gap would contribute to our understanding of the long-term effects of place-based stress. To help fill this gap, I use a new, massive, linked mortality dataset to investigate whether young men’s exposure to drought and dust storms in 341 Great Plains counties was linked to a higher risk of death in early-old age. Contrary to expectations, results suggest exposure to drought conditions had no obvious adverse effect among men aged 65 years or older at time of death—rather, the average age at death was slightly higher than for comparable men without exposure. This effect also appears to have been stronger among Plainsmen who stayed in place until the drought ended. A discussion of potential explanations for these counterintuitive results is provided

Counterintuitive · Environmental health · Falling (accident · Geography · Life span · Longevity · Public health · Sociology · Storm · Agricultural risk and resilience · Climate Change and Health Impacts · Demography · Medicine · Optimism, Hope, and Well-being · Gerontology

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