Online Lecture 6: Public Health
2024-12-06 14:00 - 16:00 (Europe/Paris) | Zoom
Lecturer: Prof. Ivan Miškulin, University of Osijek, Faculty of Medicine
Content of the lecture: This lecture aims to clarify and illuminate the field of Public Health. Many people are still unaware of what public health entails or how it impacts their daily lives. We recognize that “health” and “healthcare” are not synonymous; however, the level of development and comprehensiveness of healthcare reflects the broader concept of health.
Public health encompasses the health of each individual as well as all members of a community, providing an institutional framework for achieving this ideal. It is crucial for people to understand that public health affects various aspects of their daily lives.
Today, the term public health refers to the responsibilities and tasks related to health protection that a government must provide. Historically, the state was primarily responsible for disease prevention and caring for the poor and vulnerable. Nowadays, the state’s role has evolved to include organizing health services and overseeing overall healthcare.
Responsible governments are now formulating public health policies and programs to better understand the causes of disease, ensure social stability and prosperity, and maintain public order.
Objectives of the lecture: Students will learn what public health is, the most significant public health challenges of the 21st century, and how to organize healthcare for all population groups in various emergency situations. Additionally, students will gain an overview of the specifics involved in organizing health services in the community, as well as the details of health and social care organizations. They will also explore methods of financing, the fundamentals of management and health economics, and the implementation of public health interventions.
Recommended reading:

C. Hamlin, The history and development of public health in high-income countries. In R. Detels, R. Beaglehole, M. A. Lansang and M. Gulliford (eds.), Oxford Textbook of Public Health, 5th ed., Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2009.
A. O’Shaughnessy, J. Wright and B. Cave, Assessing health needs. In I. Kawachi, I. Lang and W. Ricciardi (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Public Health Practice, 4th ed., Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2020.
World Health Organization, Quality of Care, Geneva, WHO, 14 October 2022. Available at: www.who.int/health-topics/quality-of-care
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Health Care Quality and Outcomes Indicators. Available at: www.oecd.org/health/
World Health Organization, The Global Health Observatory. Available at: www.who.int/data/gho
World Health Organization, Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, Geneva, WHO, 1986.
M. Marmot, J. Allen, T. Boyce et al., Health Equity in England: The Marmot Review 10 Years on, London, Institute of Health Equity/The Health Foundation, 2020.
WHO Regional Office for Europe, Screening programmes: A short guide, 2020. Available at: https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/330829/9789289054782eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Optional reading:

T. L. Beauchamp and J. F. Childress, Principles of Biomedical Ethics, 3rd ed., New York, NY, Oxford University Press, 1989.
N. Daniels, Accountability for reasonableness: Establishing a fair process for priority setting is easier than agreeing on principles, British Medical Journal 321(7272), 2000, 1300–1.
J. Atkinson, E. Loftus and J. Jarvis, The art of change making, Leadership Centre, 2015. Available at: www.leadershipcentre.org.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2016/02/The-Art-of-Change-Making.pdf
W. Bridges and S. Bridges, Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change, Philadelphia, PA, Da Capo Lifelong Books, 2017.
Global Burden of Disease Collaborative Network, Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 (GBD 2019) Demographics 1950–2019, Seattle, WA, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), 2020.
UNICEF, The state of the world’s children 2021: Statistical tables, 2021. Available at: https://data.unicef.org/resources/dataset/the-state-of-the-worlds-children2021-statistical-tables
World Health Organization, Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, 1986. Available at: https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/349652.
World Health Organization, The WHO Global Diabetes Compact. Available at: www.who.int/initiatives/the-who-global-diabetes-compact
World Health Organization, Mental health. Available at: www.who.int/health-topics/mental-health
World Health Organization, Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013–2030. Available at: www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240031029
United Nations, EHO’s work on the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021–2030). Available at: www.who.int/initiatives/decade-of-healthy-ageing

You can download the presentation by prof. Ivan Miškulin in .pdf.

First Virtual Meeting ICD10h Historic Strings (WG2)
2024-11-29 14:00 - 15:00
The first meeting of the subgroup ‘ICD10h Historic Strings’ of Working Group 2: Methods and tools for standardization, coding and classifying causes of death takes place on Friday 29 November 14:00-15:00 CET.
TEAMS
The 2024 version of ICD10h comes with a set of Historic Strings in the English language. These include tidied phrases,[1] describing diseases, conditions, injuries and circumstances contributing to a death, which have been encountered in individual-level historic cause of death datasets, together with the ICD10h code and standardised description which appear in the ICD10h Masterlist. This is an extremely useful additional resource for those coding individual level deaths in the English language.
For example:

HistoricString
ICD10h
ICD10hDescription

Tetanus infantile
A33.000
Tetanus neonatorum

Trismus nascentium
A33.000
Tetanus neonatorum

Idiopathic tetanus
A35.000
Other tetanus

Tetanic convulsions
A35.000
Other tetanus

tetanus
A35.000
Other tetanus

Tetanus traumatic
A35.000
Other tetanus

Traumatic tetanus
A35.000
Other tetanus

lockjaw
A35.001
Lockjaw

trismus
A35.002
Trismus

We would like to produce similar lists for other languages (as well as add to the English language list), and need the input of people coding their own datasets to ICD10h. This will involve more than just ingesting people’s coded datasets: the codes assigned will need to be checked and original cause of death strings tidied in order to make sure that strings which mean the same have been allocated the same ICD10 code, both within the dataset from which they were derived and across different datasets. We recognise the desirability of individual researchers maintaining primary use of their own dataset for analysis, so we ask that only unique strings with ICD10h codes are submitted. We also appreciate the need for the input and intellectual property of contributors to be recognised, so we propose that all contributors of data and members of the working group are listed as authors of the Historic Strings file when it is published.
We envisage the process taking place as follows:

We start with a relatively small numbers of languages or language groups, and each language (group) forms a Sub Working Group.
Members of the working group submit their unique strings with ICD10h codes (and source other coded data in that language if available).
One or more members combine the different strings and run through a system of checks to ensure consistency of code allocation between and within datasets.
Working group meets to discuss and resolve conflicts.
HistoricStrings[Language] is deposited with authorship of the full sub working group.

[1] By ‘tidied’ we mean spellings corrected, excess white space removed, extraneous characters removed, and so on. It is also important to note that these are single causes which have sometimes been ‘parsed out’ of a longer list of causes assigned to one death.

Online Lecture 5: Medical perspectives
2024-11-22 14:00 - 16:00
Lecturer: Prof. Oonagh Walsh, Glasgow Caledonian University (ZOOM)
Content of the lecture/ workshop: This lecture uses a history of Irish mental health to help students understand the impact that chronic mental ill-health can have on mortality rates. It discusses epigenetic change as a factor in establishing specific patterns of mental and physical ill-health that may shorten life spans, and draws upon longitudinal studies from the Netherlands, Sweden, and the Holocaust as examples.
Objectives of the lecture/ workshop: To help students to understand the impact of traumatic events such as famine and warfare on vulnerable populations. The physical and psychological stresses on the developing foetus, and the potential for transgenerational trauma transmission that may shorten life expectancy, will be discussed.
Requirements: It is advisable to review the articles to facilitate an informed discussion during class.
Recommended reading:

Oonagh Walsh, ‘Nature or Nurture: Epigenetic Change and the Great Famine in Ireland’ in Christine Kinealy, Ciaran Reilly and Jason King (eds) Women and the Great Hunger (Quinnipiac University Press, 2016).
Schulz, Laura ‘The Dutch Hunger Winter and the developmental origins of health and disease’ in PNAS 107 (39) 16757-16758: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1012911107
Kellermann NP. Epigenetic transmission of Holocaust trauma: can nightmares be inherited? Isr J Psychiatry Relat Sci. 2013;50(1):33-9. PMID: 24029109: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/256539887_Epigenetic_Transmission_of_Holocaust_Trauma_Can_Nightmares_Be_Inherited
Drew, LRH. ‘Mortality and Mental Illness’ in Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. 2005;39(3):194-197.

Optional reading:

Tyerman, Zachary et al , ‘History of Serious Mental Illness Is a Predictor of Morbidity and Mortality in Cardiac Surgery’ in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Volume 111, Issue 1, 109 – 116
Lawrence, D. ‘Excess mortality, mental illness and global burden of disease’ in Epidemiol Psychiatr Sci 2015 Apr;24(2):141-3.
Susan Finnerty, ‘Physical Health of People with Severe Mental Illness’ (Dublin: Mental Health Commission), https://www.mhcirl.ie/sites/default/files/2020-12/MHC_PhysicalHealthReport.pdf
Walker ER, McGee RE, Druss BG. ‘Mortality in mental disorders and global disease burden implications: a systematic review and meta-analysis’ in JAMA Psychiatry, 2015 Apr;72(4):334-41.
Richardson C, Robson A, Sood L, Ferrier IN, Owen A. ‘Mortality in the Victorian asylum: was it so high? Standardised Mortality Rate compared with historical methods’ in History of Psychiatry, 2024;0(0).
T Roseboom, S de Rooij, R Painter, The Dutch famine and its long-term consequences for adult health. Early Hum Dev 82, 485–491 (2006).
Ahmed, F. Epigenetics: Tales of adversity. Nature 468, S20 (2010).
Kelly, B.D., Intellectual disability, mental illness and offending behaviour: Forensic cases from early twentieth-century Ireland, Irish Journal of Medical Science, 179, (3), 2010, p409-416

You can download the presentation slides by Prof. Oonagh Walsh in PDF here.

First Virtual Meeting ICD10h Classifications (WG2)
2024-11-21 10:45 - 11:45 | Teams
The first meeting of the subgroup ICD10 Classifications of Working Group 2: Methods and tools for standardization, coding and classifying causes of death takes place on Thursday 21 November 10:45-11:45 CET.
TEAMS
More information regarding the first meeting:
The 2024 version of ICD10h comes with two classifications designed for use with historic causes of death over time. The first of these is HistCat – a general historic categorisation designed to allow English language causes to be compared to the changing English/Welsh and Scottish nosologies from the mid 19th century onwards. The second is InfantCat, which is designed for use with infant death, separating out some causes of particular interest in infancy, and combining others which are rare at that time of life. A third classification for use with child deaths is under construction.
We would like to produce mappings of ICD10h codes onto other categorisations to facilitate comparisons with other research and with historic published data. Useful categorisations include (but are not limited to) ICD1, ICD2 … ICD9, BeRaSaRo classification, classifications used in particular countries.We would also like to produce a morbidity classification, and perhaps other classifications for other age groups (eg old age) or disease groups (eg tuberculosis).
We would therefore like to set up a series of sub working groups to work on mapping ICD10h codes to specific classifications. For the best outcome, each sub working group (one per classification) would include effort from a small group of people, to enable the allocation of codes to be checked and conflicts resolved. The resulting classifications, with their constituent ICD10h codes, will be published under the authorship of the working group members.
We envisage this working as follows:

We choose a small number of categorisations to start with.
Appropriate working groups are then formed.
Within each working group, members separately map ICD10h codes onto the classification.
One or more members combines the mappings, performs some basic checks and identifies conflicts in the coding.
The working group meets to discuss and resolve the conflicts.
The ICD10h-classification mapping is deposited with authorship assigned to all members of that particular sub working group.

Thematic Workshop: From Influenza to COVID. Continuity and Discontinuity in the Factors of Inequality
2024-11-14 - 2024-11-15 | Institute of Economy, Geography and Demography-Center for Human and Social Sciences- Spanish National Research Council (IEGD-CCHS-CSIC), Albasanz Street 26, Madrid, 28037, Spain
Call for Papers – From Influenza to COVID. Continuity and Discontinuity in the Factors of Inequality

In Europe, the average lifespan has increased from around 47 years in 1900 to nearly 80 years today. Globally, there has been a rise from 46.5 years in 1950 to almost 72 in recent years. However, paradoxically, the 20th century was dubbed the “pandemic century” (Honigsbaum, 2020). The influenza pandemic, one of the most significant mortality crises ever experienced by humanity, marked the beginning of a period that has recently been overshadowed by COVID-19. In between, the AIDS pandemic posed another major challenge. Despite progress and convergence, several deadly episodes have been overlooked by the media and underexplored by the scientific community, such as the Hong Kong influenza in 1968-70.
Although pandemics have existed for centuries, as evidenced by plagues and cholera, globalization and increasing population density and mobility in the last hundred years have created new dynamics of viral exchanges and exposures, resulting in significant differences in the ability to prevent and manage epidemic outbreaks. The resulting spatial and social inequalities are subjects of debate in the scientific community. Exploring these dynamics and their consequences is the goal of the IUSSP Scientific Panel on ‘Epidemics and Contagious Diseases: The Legacy of the Past’. The Madrid Workshop aims to contribute to this by focusing on the continuities and discontinuities in factors of inequality.
Epidemic diseases not only expose vulnerabilities but also play a crucial role in shaping social inequalities and reproduction. Researchers can examine the uneven distribution of resources to prevent and manage viruses by considering individual positions in social structures (gender, age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, etc.), familial dimensions, and environmental or spatial factors. Social norms and policies also influence outcomes. These factors and their interactions may (or may not) be particularly influential during epidemic outbreaks, leading to specific differential mortality rates. The effects on survival can be immediate, but delayed impacts, affecting survivors’ life trajectories and population composition in terms of selection versus fragilization, can also be considered.
Contributions are invited not only on major pandemics but also on overlooked epidemic episodes. Comparisons across space, time, and diseases are encouraged.
Programme & Poster
Location:
Institute of Economy, Geography and Demography-Center for Human and Social Sciences- Spanish National Research Council (IEGD-CCHS-CSIC), Albasanz Street, 26, Madrid 28037, Spain.
Organisers:

Diego Ramiro-Fariñas (Spanish National Research Council, Spain).
Michel Oris (Spanish National Research Council, Spain).
Alain Gagnon (University of Montreal, Canada).

If you have any questions regarding the workshop, please contact diego.ramiro@cchs.csic.es and michel.oris@cchs.csic.es.

Online Lecture 4: Intergenerational transmission of health and behaviors
2024-11-08 14:00 - 16:00 | Teams
Lecturer: Dr. Emre Sari, NORCE Norwegian Research Centre

Content of the lecture/ workshop: This lecture presents the complex mechanisms of nature and nurture in persisting health and health behaviors across multiple generations: how health and related behaviors are passed on between generations, emphasizing their historical context. It will illustrate both social and biological pathways, including genetic inheritance and epigenetic modifications, as well as the influence of parental behaviors, socioeconomic status, and cultural practices on the health outcomes of the offspring. This lecture will exemplify research findings on how early life experiences health, nutritional status during childhood, and adverse experiences in childhood health over successive generations across different historical periods, including the effects of pandemics, famines, and wars. The lecture also discusses how public policy can mitigate or worsen these intergenerational effects.

Objectives of the lecture/ workshop:

To explore the historical impacts of major events and social changes on the health of successive generations.
To understand some basic mechanisms underlying the intergenerational transmission of health and behavior.
To introduce the necessity of using historical, individual-level datasets and discuss potential methodological approaches for studying intergenerational health transmission over time.

Requirements: Active participation.

Recommended reading:

Cook, C. J., Fletcher, J. M., & Forgues, A. (2019). Multigenerational Effects of Early-Life Health Shocks. Demography, 56(5), 1855–1874. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-019-00804-3
Lee, C. (2014). Intergenerational health consequences of in utero exposure to maternal stress: Evidence from the 1980 Kwangju uprising. Social Science and Medicine, 119, 284–291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.07.001
Lindeboom, M., Portrait, F., & van den Berg, G. J. (2010). Long-run effects on longevity of a nutritional shock early in life: The Dutch Potato famine of 1846-1847. Journal of Health Economics, 29(5), 617–629. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2010.06.001
Sadruddin, A. F. A., Ponguta, L. A., Zonderman, A. L., Wiley, K. S., Grimshaw, A., & Panter-Brick, C. (2019). How do grandparents influence child health and development? A systematic review. Social Science & Medicine, 239, 112476. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112476
Sari, E. (2023b). Multigenerational Health Perspectives: The Role of Grandparents’ Influence in Grandchildren’s Wellbeing. International Journal of Public Health, 68, 1606292. https://doi.org/10.3389/ijph.2023.1606292
Sari, E., Moilanen, M., & Lindeboom, M. (2023). Role of grandparents in risky health behavior transmission: A study on smoking behavior in Norway. Social Science & Medicine, 338, 116339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116339
Sari, E., Moilanen, M., & Sommerseth, H. L. (2021). Transgenerational Health Effects of In Utero Exposure to Economic Hardship: Evidence from Preindustrial Southern Norway. Economics & Human Biology, 43(C), 101060. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.EHB.2021.101060
Serpeloni, F., Radtke, K., de Assis, S. G., Henning, F., Nätt, D., & Elbert, T. (2017). Grandmaternal stress during pregnancy and DNA methylation of the third generation: An epigenome-wide association study. Translational Psychiatry, 7(8), e1202. https://doi.org/10.1038/tp.2017.153
Skinner, M. K., Manikkam, M., & Guerrero-Bosagna, C. (2010). Epigenetic transgenerational actions of environmental factors in disease etiology. Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism, 21(4), 214–222. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tem.2009.12.007
van den Berg, G. J., & Pinger, P. R. (2016). Transgenerational effects of childhood conditions on third generation health and education outcomes. Economics and Human Biology, 23, 103–120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2016.07.001

You can download the presentation by Emre Sari in .pdf

Thematic Workshop: Funding Oppertunities for Studying Inequality in Health
2024-10-28 - 2024-10-30 | ALDEMAR KNOSSOS ROYAL RESORT, Limenas Hersonissou, Chersonissos, Crete, Greece
We are excited to announce the Thematic Workshop: ‘Funding Oppertunities for Studying Inequality in Health’. This will be a dedicated workshop in which participants can brainstorm about funding opportunities tailored for our network. It will be a first opportunity to explore potential grants, create application timelines, and collaborate on ongoing proposal initiatives.

This workshop will take place as a side-meeting of the AISoLA Conference, offering an excellent opportunity for us to connect our work with broader academic discussions. We also encourage participants to contribute to the Digital Humanities track of the conference, which holds its sessions in the afternoons. Your presentations can be included in the post-conference proceedings, providing added visibility for our collective work. See here for more information: https://2024-isola.isola-conference.org/aisola-tracks/

Full Programme

Online Lecture 3: Life course determinants of mortality
2024-10-25 14:00 - 16:00 | Teams
Lecturer: Prof. Tommy Bengtsson, Lund University

Content of the lecture/ workshop: The lecture starts with an overview of the long-term mortality decline contrasting underlying period and cohort factors. It reviews the studies from the 1930s onwards in which synthetic cohorts based on country data have been used, as well as later studies at regional levels, and their limitations. It then introduces life-cycle models and biological and social mechanisms to understand health patterns and gives examples using longitudinal individual-level data. It gives examples of how shocks in food supply and disease exposure in early life lead to social and economic disadvantages later in life as well as to poor health.

Objectives of the lecture/ workshop: On a general level the student will acquire knowledge about theories explaining the role of life-course factors for health and well-being. It will also introduce ways to apply causal modeling combining contextual information with longitudinal individual level data.

Requirements: Active participation, and it is advisable to review two articles to facilitate an informed discussion during class.

Recommended reading:

Barker, D. J. P. (2001) Fetal and infant origins of adult disease. Monatsschrift Kinderheilkunde, 149, Supplement 1, S2-S6

Bengtsson, T. (2015) Mortality: The Great Historical Decline. In International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 868-783

Bengtsson, T., & Lindström, M. (2003) Airborne infectious diseases during infancy and mortality in later life in southern Sweden, 1766-1894. International Journal of Epidemiology, 32, 2, 286-294

Crimmins, E. M., & Finch, C. E. (2006). Infection, inflammation, height, and longevity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 103, 2, 498-503

Helgertz, J & Bengtsson, T (2019), The Long-Lasting Influenza: The Impact of Fetal Stress During the 1918 Influenza Pandemic on Socioeconomic Attainment and Health in Sweden, 1968–2012, Demography, 56, 4, 1389-1425

Helgertz, J., & Nilsson, A. (2019) The effect of birth weight on hospitalizations and sickness absences: a longitudinal study of Swedish siblings. Journal of Population Economics 32, 53–178

Kuh, D. & Ben-Shlomo, Y. (eds.) (2004) A life course approach to chronic disease epidemiology. Oxford: OUP, Ch 2, 15-37, Ch 16, 371-395

Lazuka, V, Quaranta, L & Bengtsson, T (2016), ‘Fighting infectious disease: Evidence from Sweden 1870-1940’, Population and Development Review, 42, 1, 27-52

You can download the presentation by Tommy Bengtsson in .pdf

Online Lecture 1: The epidemiological transition (rescheduled)
2024-10-18 14:00 - 16:00
Lecturer: Prof. Isabelle Devos, Ghent University
Content of the lecture/ workshop: This lecture combines theoretical content with active learning to help students understand the epidemiological transition theory in a global and historical context. Special emphasis is placed on assessing the quality of the cause-of-death data when examining the epidemiological transition.

Objectives of the lecture/ workshop: This lecture aims to allow students to think critically about the theory, its updates and derivatives (e.g. health transition) and potential factors driving the transition (economic development, public health, medical progress, etc.).
Requirements: It is advisable to review the articles to facilitate an informed discussion during class.
Recommended reading:

Omran Abdel R. (1971). The Epidemiologic Transition: A Theory of the Epidemiology of Population Change. The Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly, 49(4), 509–538. https://doi.org/10.2307/3349375
Mackenbach Johan P. (2022). Omran’s ‘Epidemiologic Transition’ 50 Years on. International Journal of Epidemiology, 51(4),1054–1057, https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyac020

Optional reading and assignment:

Weisz George, Olszynko-Gryn Jesse (2010). The Theory of Epidemiologic Transition: the Origins of a Citation Classic. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 65(3), 287–326. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhmas/jrp058
Explore the trends in mortality for one infectious and one non-infectious disease of a European country of your choice since the early 20th century. Compare these findings with those from a country in a different European region, and a non-western country. Possible data source: WHO mortality database (https://platform.who.int/mortality/themes/theme-details/MDB) and the cause-of-death data series of the Human Mortality database (https://www.mortality.org/Data/HCD).

You can download the presentation by prof. Isabelle Devos in .pdf

Online Lecture 2: Understanding inequalities in health
2024-10-11 14:00 - 16:00
Lecturer: Prof. Jonas Minet Kinge, University of Oslo
Content of the lecture/ workshop: This lecture combines theoretical content with active learning to help students understand inequalities in health in a global and historical context.

Objectives of the lecture/ workshop: This lecture aims to allow students to think critically about how inequlaities in health are created.
Requirements: It is advisable to review the articles to facilitate an informed discussion during class.
Recommended reading:

Jonas Minet Kinge et al., ‘Parental income and mental disorders in children and adolescents: prospective register-based study’, International Journal of Epidemiology, 50, 5 (2021) 1615–1627, https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab066
Jonas Minet Kinge et al., ‘Association of Household Income With Life Expectancy and Cause-Specific Mortality in Norway, 2005-2015′, JAMA, 321, 19 (2019) 1916-1925. https://doi.org/doi:10.1001/jama.2019.4329

Optional reading:

Sean A.P. Clouston and Bruce G. Link, ‘A Retrospective on Fundamental Cause Theory: State of the Literature and Goals for the Future’, Annual Review of Sociology, 47, (2021). https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-090320-094912

Thematic Workshop: Tuberculosis: The White Death as a Social Disease
2024-09-26 - 2024-09-28 | School of Architecture, Design, and Urban Planning (University of Sassari), Bastioni Marco Polo 77, Alghero, Sassari, Italy
Background:
Tuberculosis has been a significant public health concern, affecting millions of people worldwide throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and even nowadays in certain parts of the world. It has captivated attention due to its profound impact and intriguing debates. Tuberculosis held a dominant position as the leading cause of death at various stages of life, especially during young adulthood. Additionally, the persistent nature of tuberculosis led to a high prevalence and burden of the disease. Unresolved discussions have centred around the key factors influencing geographical, gender, age, and temporal disparities in mortality, with a particular focus on the role of resistance (which can be affected by nutrition as well as other interfering diseases) versus exposure. These debates encompass differentials in tuberculosis mortality between men and women, disparities in urban-rural and other geographical patterns, and the underlying factors contributing to the decline in mortality during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. One central point of contention concerns the reasons behind higher death rates from tuberculosis among women compared to men, and whether this disparity was attributable to inherent female susceptibility, inadequate nutrition, or differential exposure. A prominent viewpoint posited that the elevated tuberculosis rates among women resulted from their weaker bargaining power within households, leading to inferior nutrition (McNay, Humphries and Klasen 2005). The geographic patterns of tuberculosis mortality were not straightforward either. Researchers have suggested that high tuberculosis rates in rural areas could be attributed to the return migration of individuals (especially women) who had contracted the disease in urban settings (Cronje 1984; Hinde 2015). Nutrition also emerged as a factor implicated in the substantial decline of tuberculosis during the late nineteenth century (McKeown 1976). The decline in tuberculosis has traditionally been also attributed to improving living standards, better housing, hygiene and sanitary reforms, and improvements in environmental conditions (among others, Gronjé 1984; Pooley and Pooley 1984; Puranen 1991; Vögele 1988).
Despite the severity and significant mortality associated with tuberculosis in historical populations, the investigation of the disease’s demographic characteristics has unfortunately received relatively limited attention. Significant gaps exist in the available evidence concerning the trend of tuberculosis mortality and morbidity, with a predominant focus on historical North-Western Europe, specifically Britain and/or North America. This leaves a noticeable dearth of information from Eastern and Southern Europe, but also beyond Europe (i.e., South America, Asia, and Africa), hindering a comprehensive understanding of the disease’s impact in these regions.
The workshop is organized by the IUSSP Scientific Panel on ‘Epidemics and Contagious Diseases: The Legacy of the Past’, in collaboration with the University of Sassari, Italy and our COST-Action GREATLEAP.
The workshop will be held in Alghero, Sardinia, 26-27 September 2024, hosted by the Department of Economic and Business Sciences at the University of Sassari.
Full programme
Organisers:

Lucia Pozzi (University of Sassari, Italy)
Michail Raftakis (University of Bologna, Italy)
Gabriele Ruiu (University of Sassari, Italy)

If you have any questions regarding the workshop, please contact lpozzi@uniss.it, michail.raftakis@unibo.it, and gruiu@uniss.it.

Virtual Mentoring Event
2024-08-26 15:00
The first virtual event for future mentors and mentees of the COST Action Great Leap will take place on Monday 26 August 2024 at 15:00 CET. The goal is to give both mentors and mentees an opportunity to meet at least on-line and find out how they can help each other. We have asked a variety of senior researchers to present their expertise and invited young scholars to get in touch with their potential mentors.
Mentors are going to give a 2-3 minute introduction to their research expertise with focus on the potential cooperation with mentees. The following mentors will attend:

Neville Calleaj – data sources for health inequality analysis, European Health Data Space
Isabelle Devos – epidemiological transition, historical sources, historical demography
Fevzi Esen – data analytics and data pre-processing
Ivan Miškulin – health inequalities, public health, health organizations, addiction, and vaccination
Maarten van Wijhe – quantitative methods, epidemiology, public health, pandemics
Neville Calleaj – data sources for health inequality analysis, European Health Data Space
Neslihan Önder Özdemir – proofreading English texts, academic writing in medicine in English

Afterwards mentees will join them in the break-out rooms.
Pleas register using the sign-up form
Join Zoom Meeting
https://norceresearch-no.zoom.us/j/65744088340?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 657 4408 8340
Passcode: [REDACTED]

2024-07-24 15:00 - 17:00
Virtual Launch of the Historical International Classification for Diseases (ICD10h)
After working determinedly on the ICD10h coding- and classification system, before and during the SHiP project and in the Great Leap era, working group 2 has finished the first version of the ICD10h system and the accompanying documentation/user guide. We are happy to announce that we will officially launch the online publication of the ICD10h on July 24th at 3 pm CET . All Great Leap members and others to whom this could be of interest are invited to join the online launch. During the launch, we will give a brief demonstration of the ICD10h and the documentation. Of course, we will also show you where you can find all the necessary files to use the system yourself. On top of that, the meeting will outline what else to expect from working group 2 in the future and how you can be of help, for example by using the ICD10h to code causes of death in your own language. We are excited to share this first version and we hope that many of you will choose to celebrate this moment with us!
Zoom: https://unige.zoom.us/j/7256701704
Password: [REDACTED]

2024-06-24 09:00 - 2024-07-04 17:00 | lund university
Summer Training School: ‘Research on health inequalities using longitudinal demographic data’
In Collaboration with the European Society for Historical Demography the COST-Action Great Leap organises a summer training school on ‘Research on health inequalities using longitudinal demographic data’. It equips students with theories, sources and methods for analyzing inequalities in health. The course provides hands-on workshops in data management of longitudinal micro-level data, event-history analysis, and analysis of causes of death. In addition, a large part of the summer school is devoted to a team project.

Application
Application deadline is 1 April 2024. Information of admittance will be sent on 30 April 2024. Grants (offered by our Action) that cover (a part of) the travel and lodging and a limited number of fee waivers are available for applicants who need financial support.

Call for participants
See the call for participants for more information.
↓ Call for participants

Contact information
For more information, please contact secretary@eshd.eu.

2024-05-02 08:30 - 18:00 | Radboud University, Nijmegen, Nederland
Although this event has passed, click below to explore:

The agenda we followed.
The posters that were displayed at the event.
The powerpoint of WG5.

Kick-off Meeting of the COST-Action GreatLeap (hybrid)
We are thrilled to extend a warm invitation to all stakeholders and interested parties to join us for the official Kick-off Meeting of ‘The Great Leap. Multidisciplinary approaches to health inequalities, 1800-2022’, a groundbreaking COST-Action initiative led by Radboud University.
The Great Leap has been selected by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) to undertake a comprehensive exploration of the historical origins and driving factors behind health inequalities across regions and countries in Europe and beyond. Our aim is to foster collaboration, share insights, and catalyse action in addressing pressing health disparities through providing a historical long-term perspective. In sum, this Kick-off Meeting marks the beginning of an exciting four-year journey toward understanding health inequalities using cause-specific data through a historical lens.
Agenda Highlights

Introduction to the COST-Action GreatLeap and its objectives;
Overview and updates of the Working Groups;
In depth and hands-on parallel sessions of the Working Groups;
Interactive poster sessions to facilitate networking and collaboration
start of our mentoring programme

We invite you to be part of this vital conversation and contribute your expertise to our collective efforts.
