Looks That Kill: Predicting Adult Morbidity and Mortality from Adolescent Facial Characteristics in Yearbook Photographs

Eric N. Reither, Utah State University
Robert M. Hauser, University of Wisconsin at Madison
Sheri Meland, University of Wisconsin at Madison
Karen Swallen, University of Wisconsin at Madison

Although the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) offers valuable information for obesity research, it has been limited in this regard by the lack of a baseline measure of body mass. To address this limitation, we created the relative body mass (RBM) scale, which was used by a team of six coders to code the senior yearbook photographs of 3,027 WLS respondents. Results indicated that RBM measures were reliable, uncorrelated with height and moderately correlated with BMI after 36 years of follow-up. Additionally, RBM in 1957 was a good predictor of illness symptoms, chronic conditions and mortality in mid-life. Relative to respondents classified as normal weight on the RBM scale, respondents classified as overweight were two times more likely to die from non-accidental causes and four times more likely to die from heart disease. Promising results from this study suggest that novel measures of body mass may have utility in other contexts.