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That blood clot risk was lowest among the shortest women and men and appeared to increase with height, the research showed.

"However, the height in the population has increased, and continues increasing, which could be contributing to the fact that the incidence of thrombosis has increased," he said. "I think we should start to include height in risk assessment just as overweight, although formal studies are needed to determine exactly how height interacts with inherited blood disorders and other conditions."

'Body size in general is an important factor'

Among men, an association with height was found for risk of blood clots in the lungs, called pulmonary embolism, as well as in the legs and other locations. Among women, only the risk of blood clots in the legs was significantly associated with height.

"If the clot is big enough, that can cause death, which is sometimes sudden," she said.

The researchers also found that the strong association between blood clot risk and height remained among the siblings.

"Overall, it is a solid study with good research methodology used," Okeke-Igbokwe said.

"The bottom line regarding this recent study, whether you are a taller or shorter individual, you must be aware of all the additional lifestyle factors that may increase your risk for blood clots, such as smoking or a sedentary lifestyle," she said. "We have no control over our height, but we certainly can all take the appropriate measures in making healthy lifestyle choices to reduce the risk of various conditions."

One limitation of the study was that the researchers did not have information on the participants' childhoods, home environments and diets. However, they used educational level as a measure of lifestyle factors.

"Basically, the blood has to travel up a vein against gravity, and when there is a longer distance to travel, there is more opportunity for the blood to clot abnormally," she said. "This is not the case in the arms, for example, where arm movement allows blood to more easily flow out of the limb with the help of gravity."

When it comes to the new study, the "robust" design could be replicated to determine whether height correlates with other health problems, said Ulhas Naik, professor of medicine and director of the Cardeza Center for Vascular Biology Research at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University, who was not involved in the new study.

"Being tall, there are benefits in some ways in some diseases, (and) there is the opposite in some other diseases," he said. "This kind of a study is a good starting point to now look at other diseases."

Cancer risk goes up with height?

The paper also suggested that certain genetic factors and biological pathways affecting adult height may affect the risk of those cancers.

As with the Plos Medicine study, the researchers behind the 2015 study pointed to certain genetic factors and biological pathways affecting height as having an important role in the development of breast cancer.

Is short stature tied to gestational diabetes risk?

A study of 135,861 pregnancies in women of various races in the US, of whom 5,567 were diagnosed with gestational diabetes, found that taller height was significantly associated with a lower risk of gestational diabetes.

Overall, women in the highest height quartile in that study had more than 60% lower risk of gestational diabetes compared with women in the lowest quartile, even after accounting for maternal age, weight, race, insurance and education, according to the findings.

"In contrast, height was positively associated with death from ruptured aortic aneurysm, pulmonary embolism, melanoma and cancers of the pancreas, endocrine and nervous systems, ovary, breast, prostate, colorectum, blood and lung," the abstract said. That study involved an analysis of 121 prospective studies including about 1 million people.

NYU Langone's Okeke-Igbokwe said that with all of these height-related correlations -- from cancer to heart diseases -- the exact underlying mechanisms still need to be fleshed out.

"Undoubtedly, an increased number of large-scale studies will still be required to really examine the correlation between height and these other medical conditions," she said.

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Blood clot risk -- and other problems -- might be tied to how tall you are - CNN