Effects of Life-Course Conditions on Old Age Mortality in Southern Sweden 1829-1894

Tommy Bengtsson, Lund University
Göran Broström, Umea University

The importance of life course factors, such as socio-economic position, and current conditions for mortality in later life was assessed using historical data from southern Sweden. Longitudinal demographic and socio-economic data for individuals, and household socio-economic data from parish registers were combined with community data on food costs and disease load to analyse the 55-80 years age group mortality (number of deaths is 1,190). Possible dependencies in the data due to kinship and marriage are controlled for. In this paper, we analyse how factors taking place during the life course influenced old age mortality taking into account early-life and current factors. We explore three different ways in modelling the life-course information and find both expected and unexpected results. Furthermore, both observed and unobserved characteristics at family level, either a result of genetics or shared experience, have a strong impact on mortality in later life.