Social Class and Excess Mortality in Sweden During the 1918 Influenza Pandemic.

Consensus is lacking in the literature about the role of socioeconomic factors on influenza-associated deaths during the 1918 pandemic. Although some scholars have found that social factors were important, others have not. In this study, we analyzed differences in excess mortality by social class in...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:American Journal of Epidemiology Vol. 187; no. 12; pp. 2568 - 2577
Autores principales: Bengtsson, Tommy, Dribe, Martin, Eriksson, Björn
Formato: research tables/charts Journal Article
Publicado: Oxford University Press / USA Dec2018
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:Consensus is lacking in the literature about the role of socioeconomic factors on influenza-associated deaths during the 1918 pandemic. Although some scholars have found that social factors were important, others have not. In this study, we analyzed differences in excess mortality by social class in Sweden during the 1918 pandemic. We analyzed individual-level mortality of the entire population aged 30–59 years by combining information from death records with census data on occupation. Social class was measured by an occupation-based class scheme. Excess mortality during the pandemic was measured as the number of deaths relative to the number occurring in the same month the year before. Social class differences in numbers of deaths were modeled using a complementary log-log model that was adjusted for potential confounding at the family, the residential (urban/rural), and the county levels. We found notable class differences in excess mortality but no perfect class gradient. Class differences were somewhat larger for men than for women.