CISH 2026
User Dashboard/Login
Skip to content
Back to Programme

Health and Diseases in Past Societies: Using Cause-specific Mortality to Understand Inequalities

  • Date

    III. Thursday, 27.08.2026, 11:00-13:00/30

    IV. Thursday, 27.08.2026, 14:30-16:30

  • Location
    House 5 - SR133
  • Theme
    F - Demography and Historiography

Abstract

Mortality is not only a key driver of population dynamics but also a critical indicator of overall health status. High infant and early childhood mortality often reflect inadequate nutrition and poor public health infrastructure, while mortality trends among the elderly can indicate improvements in life expectancy and living conditions. In historical populations, transitions in mortality causes, from infectious to non-communicable diseases, highlight the profound effects of shifting lifestyles, dietary patterns, urbanization, and socio-economic development. Cause-specific mortality offers a powerful lens through which to examine health inequalities in past societies. Patterns of mortality - by age, sex, social status, and place of residence - reveal how biological, environmental, and social factors shaped health outcomes across different historical and cultural settings. This panel aims to explore the multifaceted dimensions of health inequality in past populations by focusing on changes in cause-specific mortality. We invite contributions that investigate how mortality varied with factors such as gender, age, social hierarchy, and urban versus rural residence, and how these differences relate to broader epidemiological, environmental, and cultural transitions. By bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives from human biology, demography, and historical epidemiology, the session seeks to foster dialogue and stimulate new approaches to understanding health disparities in historical contexts.

Convenor

  • Tim Riswick (Radboud University)
  • Grażyna Liczbińska (Adam Mickiewicz University)

Panelists

  • João Rocha Gomes (University of Porto)
  • Grażyna Liczbińska (Adam Mickiewicz University)
  • Péter Őri (Hungarian Central Statistical Office Institute for Quantitative Population and Economic Research)
  • Elena Crinela Holom (Centre for Population Studies, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca)
  • Catherine Lynda Evina (ELA)
  • António Fernandes Gonçalves (Independent Researcher / UMinho)
  • Tim Riswick (Radboud University)
  • Mayra Murkens (Radboud University/Groningen University)
  • Sanne Muurling (Radboud University)
  • José Antonio Ortega (Universidad de Salamanca)
  • Inês Carrilho (CIES-ISCTE)
  • Kristina Thompson (Wageningen University)
  • Audrey Plavsic (UCLouvain)
  • Witold Piniarski (Adam Mickiewicz University)
  • Ömer Ünsal (Bursa Uludağ University, Bursa)
  • Tomasz Szeląg (Independent Researcher, Poznań)
  • Levente Pakot (Hungarian Central Statistical Office Institute for Quantitative Population and Economic Research)
  • Sara Wiertsema (Wageningen University)

Papers

  • Bridging Past and Present: Re-examining 19th-Century Portuguese Mortality Patterns through Digital Health Perspectives

    João Rocha Gomes

  • Spatial distribution and dynamics of the cholera epidemics in 19th-century city of Poznań

    Grażyna Liczbińska, Witold Piniarski , Ömer Ünsal, Tomasz Szeląg

  • Social class differences in cause-specific infant and child mortality. Western Hungary, 1850–1940.

    Péter Őri, Levente Pakot

  • Early Child Mortality in Nineteenth-Century Poznań: Causes, Trends, and Urban Ecology

    Elena Crinela Holom, Grażyna Liczbińska

  • Exploring Health Inequalities in Cameroon: A Retrospective Analysis of Cause-Specific Mortality at the Enongal Central Hospital (1975–2023)

    Catherine Lynda Evina

  • Pandemic crisis: from the epicenter to the periphery (Portugal). Spread and demographic impact of covid-19: from Vale do Tâmega e Sousa to Vale do Ave.

    António Fernandes Gonçalves

  • Understanding Changing Early Child Mortality in Amsterdam during the Epidemiological Transition (1856-1924)

    Tim Riswick, Mayra Murkens, Sanne Muurling

  • Causes of death in the Colonial register: Santa Isabel of Fernando Po, 1892-1927.

    José Antonio Ortega

  • Maternal Mortality in Late 19th-Century Oporto (Portugal): Causes, Contexts, and Social Determinants.

    Inês Carrilho

  • The rise of socio-economic inequities in mortality in the twentieth-century Netherlands: The role of lifestyle-related diseases.

    Kristina Thompson, Sara Wiertsema

  • External causes of death in Belgium from 1886 to 1976: spatial, social and gender inequalities.

    Audrey Plavsic