Understanding mid-life and older age mortality declines: evidence from Union Army veterans

Infectious disease earlier in life had a scarring effect on older age mortality among those reaching middle age around 1900, with the strongest negative effect on survival of having grown up in a large city. The effect of reduced early life and young adult infectious disease rates accounts for 13% of the 21 percentage point increase in survival rates among 50–64 year old males in the 20th century. Reductions in mortality from infectious and other acute disease account for another 13% of the increase.