Mortality patterns in infant individuals from the city of La Plata (Argentina) in relation to the hygienist movement

DATINO, AGUSTINA; PLISCHUK, M.; FERRERO, T.; GARCÍA MANCUSO, R.; DESANTOLO, B

La Plata

Congreso; XV SSCIP Annual Conference; 2023

LICIF, UNLP, AABA

Numerous studies on infant mortality have shown that improvements in quality of life primarily impact the postneonatal stage, as neonatal mortality is mostly caused by endogenous factors. Given the significance of the hygienist movement in Argentina during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the aim of this work is to ascertain whether urban planning changes during that period led to modifications in mortality patterns in the city of La Plata. Death records from the Municipal Cemetery were collected, selecting two independent samples corresponding to dates before and after the intervention of the hygienist movement (1887 and 1918), resulting in a total sample size of 213 individuals aged between 0 and 15 years. Causes of death recorded were grouped according to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). The distribution of mortality across age ranges (0-1 month, 1 month-1 year, 1 year15 years) and the proportional mortality rate by cause of death were compared. The age range with the highest mortality prevalence for both considered periods was 1 month-1 year, at 31.25% for 1887 and 36.63% for 1918. However, upon evaluating causes of death for both years, it is observed that the sum of diseases related to the digestive system and infectious-parasitic diseases decrease by more than 25%, while perinatal pathologies increase from 11.6% to 27.7%. Although the presented results are preliminary, they suggest that hygienist measures may have altered the underlying pathologies, reducing diseases linked to an unfavorable environmental context.