Public health measures and mortality in U.S. cities in the late nineteenth century

Abstract

In this paper we examine the decline in mortafity rates by cause of death in U.S. cities during the last decade of the 19th century. Causes of death are grouped according to their probable relationship to specific publie health measures. The reduction which occurred in the death rates from some diseases, e.g., typhoid and diarrheal diseases, can probably be attributed in part to the provision of sewers and waterworks. Large deelines also occurred in the death rates from tuberculosis and diphtheria, but the relationship between the declines in these diseases and public health practices designed to combat them is more ambiguous. We therefore eonelude that public health measures had some impact on the decline in mortality, but that these measures do not provide a complete explanation of the mortality decline.

Lead Water Pipes and Infant Mortality in Turn-of-the-Century Massachusetts

“…Increased knowledge of appropriate sanitary practices lead parents to adopt a variety of 40 Studies emphasizing the increasing importance of the germ theory of disease over the course of the early twentieth century, include: Condran and Preston (1994); Ewbank and Preston (1990); Mokyr (2000); Preston and Haines (1991); Tomes (1998);and Wolf (2001). 41 Studies emphasizing the importance of investments in public infrastructure related to health, include Condran and Crimmins-Gardner (1978);Fishback, Haines, and Kantor (2000); Higgs (1979);Meeker (1972) andMelosi (2000); Szreter (1997);and Tarr (1996). 42 For studies exploring the role of nutrition, see, generally, Craig and Weiss (1998);Fogel (1986) and (2000), pp.…”

L'impact des caractéristiques de l'allaitement sur les différences régionales de mortalité infantile en Allemagne vers 1910

“…Proportion Catholic is included not only because Catholics had high fertility but also because they tended to register stillbirths as infant deaths, thereby inflating the recorded infant mortality rate [Frey (1923), Knodel (1975)]. Population density is included because it has generally been found to be positively related to mortality in historical studies [see, for example, Condran and Crimmins-Gardner (1978)1.…”

Watersheds in Child Mortality: The Role of Effective Water and Sewerage Infrastructure, 1880 to 1920

“…The historical literature on U.S. infant mortality includes Cheney (1984), Condran and Lentzner (2004), Condran and Murphy (2008) and Preston and Haines (1991). Seminal contributions include Cain and Rotella (2001), on water and sewerage infrastructure by major city; Condran and Cheney (1982), on mortality changes within Philadelphia; Condran and Crimmins-Gardner (1978), demonstrating the importance of public works in the decrease of waterborne diseases; Ferrie and Troesken (2008), on clean water and a general decline of nonwaterborne diseases; and Meeker (1972), a pioneering piece on waterborne disease and river spillovers. See also Beach, Ferrie, Saavedra and Troesken (2016), on long-run payoffs to water purification; Galiani, Gertler and Schargrodsky (2005), on privatization of water services in Argentina; and Troesken (2001Troesken ( , 2002 on race-specific typhoid mortality and water provision.…”