Disparate Impacts of the Spanish Flu: The Philadelphia Case

John R. Logan, Brown University
Elisabeta Minca, Brown University

Public health researchers conducted many studies of the Spanish flu a century ago, including household surveys and analyses of vital statistics. It is now possible to look more closely at the disparities of vulnerability at the level of individuals and neighborhoods. This study draws on a new transcription of over 20,000 death certificates from Philadelphia in the fall of 1918, combined with the full 1920 census microdata, to carry out a multilevel analysis of who died as a result of this pandemic. The analysis hinges on mapping the city in 1920 in fine detail, geocoding addresses of all households in 1920 and of people who died in fall 1918, and linking information across these sources. The presentation will describe how these steps were accomplished and report initial results on neighborhood differences in the mortality rate and its timing over the course of the pandemic.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 81. Health and Hazards II : Spatial & Historical Perspectives