High-risk families: The unequal distribution of infant mortality in nineteenth-century Sweden

Abstract

An analysis of infant mortality (based on 133,448 births) in two regions, Sundsvall and Skellefteå, in north-eastern Sweden during the nineteenth century shows that infant mortality was highly clustered with a relatively small number of families accounting for a large proportion of all infant deaths. Using logistic regression, two important factors were found to be associated with high-risk families: (i) a biological component evidenced by an over-representation of women who had experienced stillbirths, and (ii) a social component indicated by an increased risk among women who had remarried. The results strengthen the argument for using the family rather than the single child as the unit of analysis. The clustering of infant deaths points to the need to re-evaluate our interpretations of the causes of infant mortality in the past.

Keywords:

• historical demography
• Sweden
• nineteenth century
• infant mortality
• high-risk families
• death clustering

Notes

1. Sören Edvinsson, Anders Brändström, and Göran Broström are at Umeå University, SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden. E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] John Rogers is at Uppsala University, Sweden. Email: [email protected]

2. The findings presented in this paper are the result of research undertaken within the framework of a Nordic project ‘Ett välfärdssamhälles framväxt: nedgången i spädbarns- och barnadödlighet i ett nordiskt och europeiskt perspektiv, ca. 1750–1950’ supported by the Joint Committee of the Nordic Research Councils and, more specifically, within a Swedish project ‘Towards a Better Society: The Causes of Regional Differences in Infant and Childhood Mortality in Sweden after 1750’ supported by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation. An earlier version of this paper was presented in the session ‘Vulnerable families’ at the 26th Annual Meeting of the Social Science History Association, Chicago, IL, 15–19 November 2001. The authors would like to thank the participants in the session, the discussant Frans van Poppel, and the referees for their valuable comments.