Socioeconomic Inequalities in Cause-Specific Child Mortality: Evidence from Sweden, 1800–1940

Tommy Andersson, Department of Economic History, Lund University
Martin Dribe, Lund University

This paper examines when a socioeconomic gradient in cause-specific child mortality emerged in Sweden between 1800 and 1940. Using the longitudinal, individual-level database infrastructure SwedPop, which harmonizes data from the SEDD, DDB, and Rotemannen databases, the study covers diverse regions of Sweden, from the Northern inland (the western parts of the regions Norrbotten and Jämtland) and the provinces of Västerbotten and Sundsvall to the middle areas/cities of Stockholm and Linköping, and the southern region of Scania. Previous research places the emergence of a socioeconomic gradient in all-cause child mortality in Sweden in the late 19th century, following a prolonged decline in both child and infant mortality. Drawing on the Fundamental Cause Theory, the paper tests whether mortality gradients developed differently by cause of death as medical knowledge and disease control advanced from the late 19th century. The theory posits that as diseases become better understood and preventable, higher socioeconomic groups benefit first, producing a temporally dynamic gradient in mortality. By utilizing newly harmonized historical cause-of-death coding (ICD10h) and employing Cox proportional hazards models with competing risks, the study evaluates this theoretical framework in a historical setting. The large, harmonized dataset further enables analyses by urbanicity, gender, and age group (neonatal, post-neonatal, and ages 1–4). This differentiation is crucial, as the mechanisms linking socioeconomic status to mortality are likely to vary across not only disease types, but also environments and stages of early life.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 30. Mortality Inequalities Across Class, Place, and Borders