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The introduction of a child day-care system is one of the early welfare interventions targeted towards mothers and young children that over time gained great prominence in the Swedish welfare state. Because quantitative research on day-cares in historical settings is generally scarce, in this study, we focus on the determinants of day-care enrolment in southern Sweden during the early twentieth century. We use unique individual-level records of day-care attendance for children born between 1900 and 1935 which have been linked to longitudinal micro-level data for the city of Landskrona obtained from the Scanian Economic Demographic Database. Event-history techniques are employed to analyse the importance of factors such as household composition, parental socio-economic background, marital status of the mother, and mother’s occupation. Of the studied children, 8% were ever enrolled in day-cares, most of them around the ages 3 to 6. The results show that the mother’s marital status, household SES, number of siblings, the presence of other adult females in the household and mother’s occupation are all significant determinants of day-care attendance for children. In this study, we show that in the early twentieth century in southern Sweden, day-care attendance followed a negative SES gradient and was most common among children of single mothers.

Increased population longevity could be influenced by early life factors. Some areas have long-lived populations, also in a historical perspective. We aimed to study these factors in Halland, an area with the highest life expectancy in Sweden. We collected archival data on gestational age and birth characteristics from 995 live singleton full-term births at the Halmstad Hospital, Halland, from the period 1936 to 1938 and compared these to 3364 births from three hospitals in nearby Scania for the period 1935–1945. In addition, data were obtained on maternal and offspring characteristics from the national Swedish Medical Birth Register during 1973–2013. The results show that when controlling for background maternal and offspring characteristics, mean birth weight (BW) and mean birth length were higher in Halland than in Scania, but the proportion of low birth weight (LBW) and small for gestational age (SGA) was lower. However, mean BW for Halland did not differ from the rest of Sweden in recent years 2004–2013. We also conducted a mortality follow-up for children born in Scania, which showed that LBW, being born SGA, or short birth length reduced survival. In conclusion, the high mean life expectancy in Halland compared to the rest of Sweden could have been associated with beneficial early life factors influencing birth size in the past. In more recent decades the mean BW of Halland is not different from the national mean. Thus, longevity could be expected to become more equal to the national mean in the future.

Using data from southern Sweden, this work analyses the development of maternal and infant health in five rural parishes and the town of Landskrona in Scania, Sweden, in the last 110 years. First, we address the overall development of maternal, perinatal and infant health using a range of indicators, such as maternal mortality, neonatal mortality, and stillbirth rates. We also describe how institutional and medical changes reached the town of Landskrona and the surrounding rural areas. Second, we relate the development of maternal and infant health to the institutions and medical innovations available in the area, such as the expansion of hospital facilities, availability of antibiotics and the opening of maternity wards and neonatal intensive care units. We estimate the magnitude of the impact on a range of indicators of mother and infant health using time series analysis.

Early-life adversity negatively affects morbidity and survival in late life, but knowledge is limited about effects on women’s reproduction and reproductive health. To deepen our understanding of the full effects of disease exposure in early life, including long-term consequences, we study women’s reproductive outcomes and their offspring’s health. Using the Scanian Economic Demographic Database and Swedish register data covering close to a century (1905-2000), in combination with local infant mortality rates as a measure of disease exposure in the year of birth, we follow women’s reproductive careers over their life course, examining a comprehensive set of outcomes. Results show that women exposed to disease in infancy give birth to a lower proportion of boys (lower offspring sex ratio), which is in line with the notions that male fetuses are more vulnerable to their mother’s adverse physical or contextual conditions and that pregnancies with male fetuses are more often miscarried. We also find that boys of exposed mothers are more likely to be born preterm and are heavier than boys born to non-exposed mothers, suggesting in utero out-selection of weaker male fetuses. Moreover, exposed women have a higher risk of miscarriage and of male stillbirth, but we do not find strong evidence that their overall likelihood of giving birth is affected. Taken together, our results imply that disease exposure in infancy has a continuous impact on reproduction and health across the female life course, and even affects the early-life health of the next generation.

Geocoding longitudinal and individual-level historical demographic databases enables novel analyses of how micro-level geographic factors affected demographic outcomes over long periods. However, such detailed geocoding involves high costs. Additionally, the high spatial resolution cannot be properly utilized if inappropriate methods are used to quantify the geographic factors. We assess how different geocoding levels and methods used to define geographic variables affects the outcome of detailed spatial and historical demographic analyses. Using a longitudinal and individual-level demographic database geocoded at the property unit level, we analyse the effects of population density and proximity to wetlands on all-cause mortality for individuals who lived in five Swedish parishes, 1850–1914. We compare the results from analyses on three detailed geocoding levels using two common quantification methods for each geographic variable. Together with the method selected for quantifying the geographic factors, even small differences in positional accuracy (20–50 m) between the property units and slightly coarser geographic levels heavily affected the results of the demographic analyses. The results also show the importance of accounting for geographic changes over time. Finally, proximity to wetlands and population density affected the mortality of women and children, respectively. However, all possible determinants of mortality were not evaluated in the analyses. In conclusion, for rural historical areas, geocoding to property units is likely necessary for fine-scale analyses at distances within a few hundred metres. We must also carefully consider the quantification methods that are the most logical for the geographic context and the type of analyses.

Source at http://hdl.handle.net/10622/23526343-2018-00014?locatt=view:master. It has previously been shown that infant mortality clusters in a subset of families, a phenomenon which was observed in historical populations as well as contemporary developing countries. A transmission of death clustering across generations has also been shown in Belgium, but it is unknown whether such effects are specific to the studied context or are also found in other areas. The current article introduces a special issue devoted to analysing intergenerational transmissions of infant mortality across the maternal line in Belgium, the Netherlands, northern and southern Sweden, and Norway. Taking advantage of the Intermediate Data Structure (IDS), the five empirical studies created datasets for analysis and ran statistical models using exactly the same programs, which are also published within the special issue. These works are the first set of studies using the IDS on several databases for comparative purposes. Consistent results across the studied contexts were shown: transfers of infant mortality across the maternal line were seen in all five areas. In addition, the works have shown that there are large advantages of adopting the IDS for historical demographic research. The structure has in fact allowed researchers to conduct studies which were fully comparable, transparent and replicable.

Fighting infectious disease in the past, much like today, focused on isolating the disease and thereby stopping its spread. New insights into the modes of transmission and the causal agents in the mid-nineteenth century, together with fear of new epidemic outbreaks, motivated public investments aimed at reducing mortality from infectious disease. Combining longitudinal individual-level data on 17,000 children in a rural/semi-urban region in southern Sweden with parish-level data on public health investment from local ledger registers, we explore the effects of public health initiatives, such as the establishment of isolation hospitals and improved midwifery, on infant and child mortality. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we find that the establishment of isolation hospitals in the mid-1890s had been efficient in reducing child mortality, while the reformation of the midwife system after 1900s led to the decline in infant mortality, both by a magnitude of more than 50 per cent.

We examined economic inequality and social differences in infant and child mortality and fertility responses to food price changes from 1855–1910 in North Orkney using linked vital records. This small population featured a diverse occupational structure, limited land resources, and geographic isolation from mainland Scotland. Segments of Orkney’s non-agricultural working population were living so close to the margin of subsistence in normal years that an increase in food prices in bad years cost the lives of their children. Delayed childbearing, in addition to increased labour intensity, occupational diversification, and poor relief, failed to mitigate the negative effects of unfavourable prices in this group. While previous studies for Western Europe showed a strong social gradient in the mortality response to food prices, and for Eastern Asia a strong household gradient, this study showed a strong sectoral gradient indicating low standards of living for the non-agricultural working population into the twentieth century.

Background: Child mortality differed greatly within rural regions in Europe before and during the mortality transition. Little is known about the role of nutrition in such geographic differences, and about the factors affecting the nutritional status and hence the disease outcomes. Objective: Focusing on nutrition, we analyse the effects of soil type, used as an indicator of the farm-level agricultural productivity and hence of nutritional status, on mortality of children aged 1-15 living in five rural parishes in southern Sweden, 1850-1914. Methods: Using longitudinal demographic data combined with unique geographic microdata on residential histories, the effect of soil type on mortality risks are analysed considering as outcome all-cause mortality and mortality from nonairborne and airborne infectious diseases. Results: Soil type primarily affected the mortality of farmers' children, but not labourers' children. Particularly, farmers' children residing in areas with very high proportions of clayey till (75-100Š coverage) experienced lower risks of dying compared to children residing in areas with other soil types such as clay and sandy soils. Conclusions: Certain soil types seem to have influenced agricultural productivity, which in turn affected the nutrition of farmers' children and thus their likelihood of dying. The results indicate the relatively important role of nutrition as a mortality predictor for these children. Contribution: As, to our knowledge, the first longitudinal study at the microlevel that analyses the effects of soil type on mortality in a historical rural society, we contribute to the literature on the role of nutrition on the risk of dying in a preindustrial society.