SOCI 234 Chapter Notes - Chapter reading: Waterborne Diseases, Infant Mortality, Slow Sand Filter
16 Mar 2019
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Reading: the role of public health improvements in. Mortality rates in the us fell more rapidly during the 19th and early 20th centuries than any other period in american history. This decline coincided with a transition and disappearance of a mortality penalty associated with living in urban areas. In the early 20th century, mortality in the us declined dramatically - it fell by 40% from 1900 to 1940, an average decline about 1% per year. Life expectancy at birth rose from 47 to 63. Nearly all the mortality decline is account for by reductions in infectious disease, which today is only a small share of total mortality. It also coincided with the disappearance of the urban penalty, the higher mortality rates were observed in urban areas throughout the 19th century. Economic innovation and nutritional gains could have driven this change. Fogel shows that mortality declines track reductions in chronic malnutrition.
