Mortality Crises And Their Consequences For Human Life Histories

Studies on the long-term consequences of crises experienced in early childhood do not draw a uniform picture as to the extent that such crises have an impact on later life There are studies showing that those who survive a crisis exhibit higher mortality in later life but also that these individuals exhibit lower or unchanged mortality In this chapter, we develop a hypothesis according to which the impact on later life (or on survival) is caused by the severity of the crisis and that-independent of the nature of the crisis-these effects might be mediated by the immune system