Abstract
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.
Résumé
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.
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acknowledgements: I am grateful to the German Academic Exchange Service and the Rackham Graduate School of the University of Michigan for supporting data collection, to John Knodel and Arthur Imhof for providing some data sources, and to Ron Lesthaeghe for sending some bibliographic materials. Doug Kononen, Monica Liebert, and the anonymous referees made helpful comments. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America, Philadelphia, 1979.
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Kintner, H.J. The impact of breastfeeding patterns on regional differences in infant mortality in Germany, 1910. Eur J Population 3, 233–261 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01796777
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01796777