DISABILITY, LIFE AND DEATH IN A PAST POPULATION

Lotta Vikström, Erling Häggström Lundevaller, Helena Haage, Sören Edvinsson, Glenn Sandström

Abstract

Present-day studies show that impairments jeopardize individuals’ health status. There are also indications that disability makes people more weakly positioned in the labor market than the ‘able’ majority and more likely to live without a partner. The aim of this study is to detect how disability shaped individuals’ life and death in past society, represented by the 19th-century Sundsvall region, Sweden. First, we conduct event history analysis of some 36,000 individuals to investigate their mortality risks. Comparisons are made across different disabilities, the genders and with a referencegroup of non-disabled cases. Second, sequence analysis investigates the development of life trajectoriesduring young adulthood with regard to the transition to work and family formation.