Death in Tasmania: Using civil death registers to measure nineteenth-century cause-specific mortality

Abstract

Studies of nineteenth-century cause-specific mortality date from the nineteenth century itself. Of necessity, most of these studies are based on published cause-of-death data, where causes have already been classified according to some system, rather than data from the original death registers. This thesis investigates nineteenth-century Tasmanian mortality. The main data source for this investigation is a computer database containing individual-level death-registration data for Tasmania from the period 1838-99. Annual life tables are calculated using adjusted census and death registration data. Causes of death are analysed using a new cause-:of-death classification system that combines elements from the Farr system of registration, in use in England and adopted in Tasmania in the nineteenth century, and the latest revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. The study seeks to answer the following three questions: How accurately were causes of death registered in nineteenth-century Tasmania? How were causes of death classified in the Statistics of Tasmania? What were the mortality patterns and trends over time in Tasmania and what causes of death resulted in these patterns and trends? The thesis confirms the need for researchers to be aware of the pitfalls of nineteenth century cause-of-death data, while recognising the wealth of information that such data can provide about nineteenth-century causes of death, and perceptions of these causes. The thesis also emphasises the importance of considering changes in mortality over time separately by age. The causes of mortality in infancy, childhood, adulthood and middle and old age were all very different, and calculating just one measure of mortality, such as life expectancy or an age-standardised mortality rate, often masks the very different trends occurring for various life stages. Show more