Territorial dispersion and convergence in infant mortality and its components: Italy 1950- 2019
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.71014/sieds.v78i3.333Keywords:
Neonatal mortality, postneonatal mortality, Infant mortality, Italian provinces, convergenceAbstract
The steep decline in infant mortality is undoubtedly one of the most significant changes Italy and Europe have experienced during the last centuries. This paper focuses on the temporal and spatial evolution of survival in the first year of life, using Italian provincial data from 1950 to 2019. After World War II to the present, the decline of infant mortality risks was a process that took place with different intensities and speeds among regions and provinces. Nonetheless, the convergence process was slow even continuously in action. This work has three main objectives. First, the timing and distribution over time and by province of the drop of mortality in the first year of life are pictured. Second, we analyse the convergence process at the territorial level together with the persistence and potential concentration of inequality in survival by means of classical measures of dispersion. Third, we control the evolution of neonatal and post-neonatal mortality with a sub-national approach. To achieve these objectives, we make use of a provincial-level database that has so far been little used, and which covers 70 years, from 1950 to 2019.
After providing theoretical explanations about the emergence and the persistence of geographical inequalities in neonatal, post-neonatal and infant mortality, we will show how the geographical inequality follows the North-South gradient, and whether the process of convergence comes to an end for both the component of infant survival.
References
ALEOTTI P. CATALDI L., RUGGERO M., SANSONE V. 1985. Bambini. La condizione dell’infanzia in Italia, Milano: Federico Motta Editore.
BELLETTINI A. 1987. La transizione demografica dopo l’unificazione, in BELLETTINI A. (Ed), La popolazione italiana. Un profilo storico, Torino: Einaudi, pp.156-219
BERLINGUER G., TERRANOVA F. 1972. La strage degli innocenti indagine sulla mortalità infantile in Italia. Firenze: La Nuova Italia.
BONATI M., CAMPI R. 2005. What Can We Do to Improve Child Health in Southern Italy? PLoS Med, Vol.2, No. 9, e250. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0020250
CONGDON P. 2004. Modelling Trends and Inequality in Small Area Mortality. Journal of Applied Statistics, Vol. 31, No. 6, pp. 603-622. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1478881042000214695
CONGDON P., CAMPOS R.M., CURTIS S.E., SOUTHALL H.R., GREGORY I.N., JONES I.R. 2001. Quantifying and Explaining Changes in Geographical Inequality of Infant Mortality in England and Wales since the 1890s. International Journal of Population Geography, Vol. 7, pp. 35-51. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ijpg.203
DALLA ZUANNA G., ROSINA A. 2011. An Analysis of Extremely High Nineteenth-Century Winter Neonatal Mortality in a Local Context of Northeastern Italy. European Journal of Population, Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 33-55. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10680-010-9219-5
DALLOLIO L., LENZI J., FANTINI M.P. 2013. Temporal and geographical trends in infant, neonatal and post-neonatal mortality in Italy between 1991 and 2009. Italian Journal of Pediatrics, Vol. 39, No. 19. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1824-7288-39-19
DANIELE V., MALANIMA P. 2007. Il prodotto delle regioni e il divario Nord-Sud in Italia (1861-2004). Rivista di Storia Economica, Vol. 92, No. 2, pp.267-315.
DEL PANTA, L. 1990, Fattori e condizioni della mortalità tra 1800 e 1930: igiene, salute e ambiente. La situazione in Italia. In SIDES (Ed.), Popolazione, Società e Ambiente. Temi di Demografia Storica Italiana (Secc. XVII-XIX), Clueb: Bologna, pp. 245- 273.
DE ROSE A., STROZZA S. (Eds.) 2015. Rapporto sulla popolazione. L’Italia nella crisi economica, Bologna: Il Mulino.
FANTINI M.P., STIVANELLO E., DALLOLIO L., LOGHI M., SAVOIA E. 2005. Persistent geographical disparities in infant mortality rates in Italy (1999–2001): comparison with France, England, Germany, and Portugal. European Journal of Public Health, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp. 429–432. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckl009
GÄCHTER M., THEURL E. 2011. Health status convergence at the local level: empirical evidence from Austria. International Journal for Equity in Health, Vol. 10, No. 34. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-9276-10-34
GOLI S., MODADHVAJ, CHAKRAVORTY S., RAMMOHAN A. 2019. World health status 1950-2015: Converging or diverging. PLoS One: e0213139 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0213139
KENDALL M, STUART A. 1977. The advanced theory of statistics. Vol 1., 4th ed. London: Charles Griffin.
LAURIA L., DE STAVOLA B.L. 2003. A district-based analyses of stillbirth and infant mortality rates in Italy: 1989–93. Paediatric Perinatal Epidemiology, Vol. 17, pp. 22–23. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-3016.2003.00462.x
MACKENBACH J.P. 2012. The persistence of health inequalities in modern welfare states: The explanation of a paradox. Social Science & Medicine, Vol. 75, pp. 761-769. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.02.031
MATERIA E., CACCIANI L., BUGARINI G., CESARONI G., DAVOLI M., MIRALE M.P., VERGINE L., BAGLIO G., SIMEONE G., PERUCCI C.A. 2005. Income inequality and mortality in Italy. European Journal of Public Health, Vol.15, pp. 411–417. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/cki007
MAZZUCCO W., CUSIMANO R., MACALUSO M., LA SCOLA C., FIUMANÒ G., SCONDOTTO S., CERNIGLIARO A., CORSELLO G., LA TORRE G., VITALE F. 2011. A retrospective follow up study on maternal age and infant mortality in two Sicilian districts. BMC Public Health, Vol 11, No 817. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-11-817
MOSER K., SHKOLNIKOV V., LEON D. A. 2005. World Mortality 1950–2000: Divergence Replaces Convergence from the Late 1980s. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 83, 202–209.
OMRAN A.R. 1998. The epidemiologic transition theory revisited thirty years later. World Health Statistics Quarterly/Rapport trimestriel de statistiques sanitaires, Vol. 51, No. 2-3-4, pp. 99-119.
PARAZZINI F., PIROTTA N., LA VECCHIA C., BOCCIOLONE L., FEDELE L. 1992. Determinants of perinatal and infant mortality in Italy. Revue d'Epidémiologie et de Santé Publique, Vol. 40, pp.15–24.
POZZI, L. 2000. La lotta per la vita. Evoluzione e geografia della sopravvivenza in Italia fra ’800 e ’900. Forum: Udine.
POZZI, L., ROSINA, A. 2000. Quando la madre lavora: industrializzazione e mortalità infantile nelle province lombarde dall’Unità alla Grande Guerra. In Pozzi, L., Tognotti, E. (Eds). Salute e malattia fra ‘800 e ‘900 in Sardegna e nei paesi dell’Europa Mediterranea, pp. 153-177, Sassari.
SCALONE, F., AGATI P., ANGELI, A., DONNO, A. 2017. Exploring unobserved heterogeneity in perinatal and neonatal mortality risks: The case of an Italian sharecropping community, 1900–39, Population Studies, 71, pp. 23 – 41. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00324728.2016.1254812
SCALONE, F., SAMOGGIA, A., 2018. Neonatal mortality, cold weather, and socioeconomic status in two northern Italian rural parishes, 1820–1900, Demographic Research, Vol. 39, 18, pp. 525 – 560. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4054/DemRes.2018.39.18
SCIOSCIA M., VIMERCATI A., MAIORANO A., DEPALO R., SELVAGGI L. 2007. A critical analysis on Italian perinatal mortality in a 50-year span. European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, Vol. 130, No.1, pp. 60–65. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejogrb.2005.12.021
VALKONEN T. 2004. Trends in differential mortality in European countries. In Vallin J. And Meslé F. (Eds). Trends in mortality and differential mortality, eds., 185–321. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing.
VALLIN J., MESLÉ F. 2004. Convergences and divergences in mortality. A new approach to health transition. Demographic Research Special Collection, S2, pp. 11-44. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4054/DemRes.2004.S2.2
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Cristina Munno, Rosella Rettaroli, Francesco Scalone
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
