Health in the Humanities Seminar: Differences in health
- variation in health by age and gender among the working population in Gothenburg, Sweden, 1884-1950
Presentation by Helene Castenbrandt & Bárbara Revuelta(postdoctoral fellows, CoRe)
Spanish flu patients at Östersund, Sweden, 1918.
Dataset for the study of morbidity
At this seminar the presenters will introduce a dataset on members in two Swedish sickness funds; Redbar and Tryggheten. The data provides us with information on individual sickness experiences during 1884-1950. The main focus of the study is the variances in health between members in sickness funds, looking at both age and gender differences as well as changes over time regarding sickness claims.
New insights on gender differences
Compared to mortality much less is known about morbidity during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Additionally, previous historical research has not analyzed gender differences, instead demographic studies on morbidity have exclusively looked at sickness among men. Therefore, even less is known on historical difference in sickness between men and women.
The data used in this study provide a good opportunity for analyzing gender differences. Helene Castenbrandt will analyze:
- patterns in membership,
- the number of and duration of disease spells,
- sickness days per year,
- sickness diagnoses,
- occupation and changes over time
– all with regard to gender differences.
Opportunity to reconstruct disease experiences
The data records entail personal information on members such as name, date of birth, sex, address and also civil status and occupation. However, the richest information is found regarding the actual sickness claims: any episode of disease for which they claim benefits was dated (start and finish) as well as accompanied with information on the type of “sickness” that produced it. This rich information allows us to reconstruct the lives of the members in relation to their disease experience.
Health in the Humanities Seminar Series
The seminar is the first in the series Health in the Humanities organized by Copenhagen Centre for Health Research in the Humanities (CoRe), Saxo Institute.
All interested are welcome.
