A World of (In)difference? Social Inequalities Among Infants’ Causes of Death in Mid-nineteenth-Century Amsterdam
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12211327 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sanne Muurling (0000-0001-6747-9288, Radboud University Nijmegen, corresponding author), Peter Ekamper (0000-0002-5396-5215, Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI-KNAW) , PO Box 11650, 2502 AR The Hague) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 291-322 |
| Publication date | 2024-11-21 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social History of Medicine (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0951-631X • E-ISSN: 1477-4666 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/shm/hkae066 |
| PMID | 40678594 |
| OpenAlex | W4404582059 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
The relationship between mortality and socioeconomic status is among the most debated topics within historical demography. This article scrutinises social disparities in infant mortality and its underlying mechanisms in mid-nineteenth-century Amsterdam. We apply two methods of survival analysis (Cox proportional hazard models and Fine-Grey competing risk models) on newly digitised individual-level cause-of-death data for infants born in 1856 combined with civil certificates and population register data. Through a comparison of all-cause and cause-specific mortality, we bring to light important social differences in infants' mortality risks; hazard ratios for congenital and birth disorders during early post-neonatal infancy were over 50 per cent lower for Amsterdam's middle class than for unskilled workers. We argue that the social differentiation in infant mortality reflects stark intra-urban disparities in maternal health across social groups as well as a degree of medical ineffectiveness or even indifference structured along the same socioeconomic lines
Child mortality · Geography · Hazard · Hazard ratio · Inequality · Infant mortality · Political science · Population · Proportional hazards model · Social class · Social inequality · Socioeconomic status · Sociology · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Medicine · Demography
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |