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This paper presents some new and unique cross-county data from 19th-century Sweden over birth, death, and marriage rates, grain prices, and harvests. Local grain prices correlate negatively with local harvests, suggesting imperfectly integrated food markets. The so-called positive and preventive checks are also present: good local harvests are associated with high birth and marriage rates, and low death rates. We also find that the fertility and marriage effects from changes in prices -- but not harvests -- are greater in counties that rely more on manufacturing, consistent with an open-economy model of fertility choice, where agents earn income from both agriculture and manufacturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The COVID‐19 pandemic has put an exceptional strain on intensive care units worldwide. During the first year, the survival of patients with acute hypoxaemic respiratory failure appears to have improved. We aimed to describe the mortality rates, management characteristics and two pandemic waves during the first year at three non‐academic rural intensive care units in Sweden. Methods: We retrospectively analysed all cases of COVID‐19 admitted to intensive care units in Region Jönköping County during 1 year. The primary endpoint was 30‐day mortality. Results: Between 14th March 2020 and 13th March 2021, 264 patients were admitted to undergo intensive care with confirmed SARS‐CoV‐2 infection. The 30‐day mortality rate after the initial intensive care admission was 12.9%, and this rate remained unchanged during both pandemic waves. However, we found several distinct differences between the two pandemic waves, including an increase in the use of high‐flow nasal oxygen but a decrease in invasive mechanical ventilation use, biochemical markers of inflammation, continuous renal replacement therapy and length of stay in the intensive care unit. Conclusion: Our study showed that critically ill patients with COVID‐19 in Sweden have a low 30‐day mortality rate which compares well with results published from academic centres and national cohorts throughout Scandinavia. During the second pandemic wave, the proportion of patients receiving invasive mechanical ventilation and continuous renal replacement therapy was lower than that in the first wave. This could be the result of increased knowledge and improved therapeutic options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The second half of the twentieth century witnessed substantial convergence in life expectancy around the world. We examine differences in the age pattern of mortality in industrialized countries over time to show that inequality in adult life spans, which we measure with the standard deviation of life table ages at death above age 10 years, S10, is increasingly responsible for the remaining divergence in mortality. We report striking differences in level and trend of S10 across industrialized countries since 1960, which cannot be explained by aggregate socioeconomic inequality or differential external-cause mortality. Rather, S10 reflects both within- and between-group inequalities in life spans and conveys new information about their combined magnitudes and trends. These findings suggest that the challenge for health policies in this century is to reduce inequality, not just lengthen life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]