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. 2020 Feb 13;17(4):1216.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17041216.

Neonatal Mortality and Temperature in Two Northern Swedish Rural Parishes, 1860-1899-The Significance of Ethnicity and Gender

Lena Karlsson  1   2 , Erling H Lundevaller  1   3 , Barbara Schumann  1   4
Affiliations

Neonatal Mortality and Temperature in Two Northern Swedish Rural Parishes, 1860-1899-The Significance of Ethnicity and Gender

Lena Karlsson et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the association between season of birth and daily temperature for neonatal mortality in two Swedish rural parishes between 1860 and 1899. Further, we aimed to study whether the association varied according to ethnicity (indigenous Sami reindeer herders and non-Sami settlers) and gender. The source material for this study comprised digitized parish records from the Demographic Data Base, Umeå University, combined with local weather data provided by the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute. Using a time event-history approach, we investigated the association between daily temperature (at birth and up to 28 days after birth) and the risk of neonatal death during the coldest months (November through March). The results showed that Sami neonatal mortality was highest during winter and that the Sami neonatal mortality risk decreased with higher temperatures on the day of birth. Male neonatal risk decreased with higher temperatures during the days following birth, while no effect of temperature was observed among female neonates. We conclude that weather vulnerability differed between genders and between the indigenous and non-indigenous populations.

Keywords: Sweden; gender; indigenous population; neonatal mortality; seasonality; temperature.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Map of Sweden including the study area of Jokkmokk and Gällivare. Reproduced with permission from the Swedish National Archives.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Hazard ratios of neonatal mortality with 95% confidence intervals (blue = increased hazard ratio, red = decreased hazard ratio), 1860–1899.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Hazard ratios of neonatal mortality with 95% confidence intervals (blue = increased hazard ratio, red = decreased hazard ratio), November–March, 1860–1899.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Predicted probabilities of neonatal mortality with 95% confidence intervals by temperature after birth, stratified by gender, November–March, 1860–1899.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Predicted probabilities of neonatal mortality with 95% confidence intervals, by temperature at birth, stratified by ethnicity, November–March, 1860–1899.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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