Without Antibiotics and Quality of Life—The Role of Education: Decrease of Infant Mortality, Catalonia 1900–1950

Margarita Gonzalvo-Cirac , Universitat Internacional Catalunya (UIC)
Victoria Roque Sanchez, Researcher
Michel Zabalza, Professor
Isabel Morales Benito, Professor

Girls’ school participation has expanded considerably; a phenomenon had substantial consequences for quality live. From the Demographic and Epidemiological Transition, conceptual framework of our research, we propose what happened in Catalonia (in the northeast of Spain) between 1900 and 1950. It holds the highest life expectancy of all the Spanish provinces, which increased year per year as the century progressed. The evolution of general mortality, infant mortality and causes of death in Catalonia are analyzed in comparison with Spain and other countries such as France, Italy and Portugal. The data used was derived from statistics on deaths classified according to cause of death from the Instituto Estadística. This epidemiological study has been performed by grouping major causes of death; the methodology used is the indirect standardization. Results show: that between 1900 and 1950, life expectancy increased about 30 years and that women’s life expectancy grew more than that of men.

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 Presented in Session 5. Health & Mortality 1