Population, health and nutrition in Spain (18th-20th centuries)

El document es va presentar, en format pòster, a la Population Association of America. 2009 Annual Meeting, guanyant el primer premi a la Sessió de Pòsters 3. Detroit (Michigan), 30 d'abril-2 de maig de 2009.Background: Recent reviews by Spanish economic history claim that modern economic growth in that country can be traced back at least to the middle of the 19th century and it would have gained momentum during the last third of that century. Yet some bio-sanitary indicators did not show any significant impovement during the first stages of this economic growth process. For instance, life expectancy remained under 30 years until the 20th century and male cohorts born during the central decades of the 19th century recorded low average heights withouth any consistent trend of improvement until the last decades of that century. Aims: The objective of this work is the exploration of the potential associations between demographic and socioeconomic variables that potentially affected some health and nutritional outcomes in Spain over the last two centuries. It is also aimed at disentangling the effects of physical, medical and nutritional factors that shapedthe health transition in the country. Both, local level and national level data on height and mortality are analyzed for these purposes