Evolution of infant mortality and family-based risk factors in a preindustrial Austrian population: 1630–1908

Abstract

Infant mortality, a reflection of socioeconomic and health conditions of a population, is shaped by diversefactors. This study delves into a pre-industrial population, scrutinizing neonatal and post-neonatal deathsseparately. Family factors such as mortality crises, religion, and legitimacy are also explored. Data of 9,086people obtained through multigenerational information from ecclesiastic records from 1603 to 1908 wereanalysed by means of a joinpoint regression analysis. Death risk was assessed with univariate andmultivariate Cox Proportional Hazard models. Early neonatal mortality was 5.6% of births and showed agradual and steady increase from 1630 to 1908, with no substantial improvement over the three centuriesanalysed. Late neonatal (4.3% of births) and post-neonatal mortality (18.7% of births) shared a differentpattern, showing a decline between the mid-18th and mid-19th centuries, and an increase by the 20thcentury that could be caused by socioeconomic factors and the impact of several epidemics. In thehistorical population of Hallstatt, infant survival was influenced by the sex of the newborn, the death of themother and the precedent sibling, and by the birth interval. Environmental and cultural factors, such asmortality crises and religion, influenced late neonatal and post-neonatal mortality, but not early neonatalmortality. The results highlight the need to independently assess early neonatal mortality in studies ofinfant mortality in historical populations, and to use as complete time periods as possible to capturedifferences in mortality patterns.