Ageing, sickness and health in England and Wales during the mortality transition
Ageing, sickness and health in England and Wales during the mortality transition
During the second half of the nineteenth century, friendly-society actuaries became increasingly concerned about an apparent increase in recorded morbidity. They attributed this increase to changes in sickness behaviour and a decline in the societies' ability to police sickness claims. These arguments have been echoed by a number of historians but others have suggested that the increase represented a real change in sickness experience. This paper addresses these arguments in three ways. It begins by exploring contemporary debates over morbidity change between 1870 and 1914. It then revisits the data on which many of these arguments were based. Finally, it presents new data from a recent study of the Hampshire Friendly Society, which shed fresh light on the pattern of age-specific morbidity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
sickness, morbidity, friendly societies
643-665
Harris, Bernard
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Gorsky, Martin
eec8a057-8df6-4841-a447-50abc7d38c2b
Guntupalli, Aravinda Meera
6ab00497-f86b-4bec-b393-c35a0c1054c9
Hinde, Andrew
0691a8ab-dcdb-4694-93b4-40d5e71f672d
December 2011
Harris, Bernard
4fb9402b-64f0-474b-b41f-a9ca34d4ff50
Gorsky, Martin
eec8a057-8df6-4841-a447-50abc7d38c2b
Guntupalli, Aravinda Meera
6ab00497-f86b-4bec-b393-c35a0c1054c9
Hinde, Andrew
0691a8ab-dcdb-4694-93b4-40d5e71f672d
Harris, Bernard, Gorsky, Martin, Guntupalli, Aravinda Meera and Hinde, Andrew
(2011)
Ageing, sickness and health in England and Wales during the mortality transition.
[in special issue: The Politics of Suicide]
Social History of Medicine, 24 (3), .
(doi:10.1093/shm/hkq102).
Abstract
During the second half of the nineteenth century, friendly-society actuaries became increasingly concerned about an apparent increase in recorded morbidity. They attributed this increase to changes in sickness behaviour and a decline in the societies' ability to police sickness claims. These arguments have been echoed by a number of historians but others have suggested that the increase represented a real change in sickness experience. This paper addresses these arguments in three ways. It begins by exploring contemporary debates over morbidity change between 1870 and 1914. It then revisits the data on which many of these arguments were based. Finally, it presents new data from a recent study of the Hampshire Friendly Society, which shed fresh light on the pattern of age-specific morbidity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
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e-pub ahead of print date: 24 February 2011
Published date: December 2011
Keywords:
sickness, morbidity, friendly societies
Organisations:
Sociology & Social Policy, Social Statistics
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 180791
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/180791
ISSN: 0951-631X
PURE UUID: b026bd4f-8670-4256-a613-f7dac26ed439
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Date deposited: 06 May 2011 13:16
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 02:45
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Contributors
Author:
Bernard Harris
Author:
Martin Gorsky
Author:
Aravinda Meera Guntupalli
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