The Impact of Breastfeeding Patterns on Regional Differences in Infant Mortality in Germany, 1910

This paper examines the impact of breastfeeding practices on the large regional differences in infant mortality in Germany around 1910. Breastfeeding is strongly negatively associated with infant mortality and remains so after controlling for public health measures and for demographic, economic, and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of population 1988-05, Vol.3 (2), p.233-261
Main Author: Kintner, Hallie J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Breast diseases
Breast Feeding
Breastfeeding
Catholicism
Causes of death
Christianity
Coefficients
Delivery of Health Care
Demography
Developed Countries
Europe
Europe, Eastern
Fertility
Germany, East
Germany, West
Health
Health Planning
Health Services
Illegitimacy
Infant Mortality
Infant mortality rates
Infant Nutritional Physiological Phenomena
Infants
Mortality
Multivariate Analysis
Nutritional Physiological Phenomena
Organization and Administration
Patient care
Population
Population Dynamics
Regional disparities
Regression Analysis
Religion
Social Problems
Statistics as Topic
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Summary:This paper examines the impact of breastfeeding practices on the large regional differences in infant mortality in Germany around 1910. Breastfeeding is strongly negatively associated with infant mortality and remains so after controlling for public health measures and for demographic, economic, and social factors that also affect infant mortality. But it contributes much less to regional differences in infant mortality than do access to medical care, percentage illegitimate and marital fertility. Breastfeeding is less important than these other factors because it affects fewer causes of death and has a smaller impact on cause-specific infant mortality rates. /// L'auteur étudie l'impact des pratiques d'allaitement sur les grandes différences régionales de mortalité infantile observées en Allemagne aux alentours de 1910. Il existe une association fortement négative entre l'allaitement et la mortalité infantile, même quand on contrôle les facteurs démographiques, économiques, sociaux et de politique sanitaire, qui, eux aussi, affectent la mortalité infantile. Mais les différences régionales de mortalité infantile s'expliquent nettement moins par l'allaitement que par l'accessibilité des soins médicaux, le taux d'illégitimité des naissances et la fécondité légitime. L'allaitement est un facteur de moindre importance que ceux-ci parce qu'il n'a d'impact que sur un petit nombre de causes de décès, et un faible impact sur les taux de mortalité infantile par cause.
ISSN:0168-6577
1572-9885
DOI:10.1007/BF01796777