Seasonality of death in a historical population

ESPARZA, MIREIA; MARTÍNEZ ABADÍAS, NEUS; SJOVOLD TORSTEIN,; GONZÁLEZ JOSÉ, ROLANDO; GARCÍA MORO, CLARA; RIVAS, A; HERNÁNDEZ, MIQUEL

Conferencia; European Population Conference (EPC 2012); 2012

Analysis of long mortality time series have determined the presence of long-term trends inseasonal variation of mortality, and authors have been associated them with humanbehavioural patterns, socio-economic factors and, of course, environmental parameters. Thesestudies have frequently reported a decrease in seasonal variation of deaths due to a change inthe main causes of death, from season-specific diseases to degenerative diseases and diseasesrelated to modern lifestyles (Muñoz-Tudurí, 2006; García-Moro et al., 2000; Madrigal, 1994).This change in mortality causes is known as epidemiological transition (Omran, 1971).Our goal in this work is testing the seasonality of mortality in the Austrian population ofHallstatt, and its evolution during the period 1603-1905, analyzing the timing and incidence ofepidemiological transition.Hallstatt, one of the oldest settlementsin Austria, is placed at about75 km south-east from Salzburg, inthe province of Upper Austria, onHallstatt lake (Fig. 1). The maineconomical activity since 1300 B.C.and during the analyzed period wassalt minery.