Doctoral Dissertation Research: Social Inequalities and Respiratory Mortality in Newfoundland during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic

University Of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia MO

Investigators

Abstract

The 1918 influenza pandemic has been studied from the perspectives of epidemiologists, historians, virologists, and social scientists, providing increasingly more insight on how biology and culture interact to result in unequal mortality outcomes. This doctoral dissertation project will investigate population health and social inequalities that contributed to the 1918 pandemic outcomes, taking into account both influenza and other respiratory illnesses that were circulating during the pandemic. Advancing knowledge about how past behaviors and population structure affected previous pandemic outcomes can contribute to contemporary knowledge of human behaviors, population structure, and potential infectious threats. This project will also support science outreach and education activities at the research location and home institution. The investigators will analyze the impact of population heterogeneity, specifically in terms of social inequalities, on mortality associated with four respiratory diseases (influenza, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and bronchitis) during the 1918 influenza pandemic on the island of Newfoundland. Newfoundland represents a unique opportunity for the use of historical archival data to reconstruct the political economy, population, and social structure of a pre-industrial society in a way that is directly comparable to its Western neighbors. Early 20th century Newfoundland's urban and rural regions varied greatly in their demographic and socioeconomic characteristics; therefore, research questions will address how age, sex, gendered divisions of labor, crowding, income, and education facilitate social inequality that leads to differential disease mortality. The data used will be collected from the Provincial Archives of Newfoundland & Labrador, and will include yearly vital statistics, death records, newspapers, diaries, photograph collections, and literature. Survival analysis and seasonal regression models will be used to quantify differential mortality across the island, but qualitative data are also critical to understanding the cultural norms of men, women, and children during the early 20th century, and an anthropological perspective on 1918 pandemic mortality. This project is jointly supported by the NSF's Biological Anthropology and Cultural Anthropology programs. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.