• We should now be fully online following an overnight outage. Apologies for any inconvenience, we do not expect there to be any further issues.

Homework help - factors that improve lifespan of a population

QueHuong

Platinum Member
Nov 21, 2001
2,098
0
0
I have to do a demography lab, and I'm about done with it. In the conclusion, I have to explain possible factors that explain why Group B has a longer lifespan and notably less infant mortality rates, than Group A.

Group A: People who died before 1890
Group B: People who died after 1920.


I've only named a few possible reasons so far: improved healthcare and sanitation, which are the obvious ones. But what are other possible reasons? And I have to cite my references, so please be specific enough that I can look up a possible factor in a book (no online sources can be used). For example, "Improved healthcare" will be kinda hard to find a reference for, since it's so general; but "So and so medicine was created in the 1930s that cured blah blah" is great.

Thanks.
 

So

Lifer
Jul 2, 2001
25,923
17
81
radiation has turned us all into supermen!

How about better safety (i.e. workplace safety, greater safety standards on machines like trains and ships).
 

jinduy

Diamond Member
Jan 24, 2002
4,781
1
81
mcdonalds for making the food relatively cheap so that all shall not go hungry!
 

StageLeft

No Lifer
Sep 29, 2000
70,150
5
0
Originally posted by: tjaisv
Longer lives in this f'ing reality. It's better to have never been born.
You know doctors really can help with that problem you're having :)

 

rgwalt

Diamond Member
Apr 22, 2000
7,393
0
0
I would look at the effects of widespread vaccinations against small pox, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, diptheria, pertussis (whooping cough), and tetnus. Also, ANTIBOTICS!!!! Penecillin wasn't widely used until the 1940's. Of course you have improved medical technology, sanitation, refridgeration, pasturization, etc, as well. However, both vaccinations and antiboitics can be pinpointed with specific dates, with either their development or wide-spread use not occurring until after 1920.

BOOM!!!

Ryan
 

Luagsch

Golden Member
Apr 25, 2003
1,614
0
0
no more duells in bars. flushing toilets, medicine that actually is medicine, as the traveling distance grows less in-family marriages (well not everywhere: rotflpimp when in family guy "the road to road island" when stewie and brian get the plane), and child eating was less popular after 1920... i think that sums it up....
 

QueHuong

Platinum Member
Nov 21, 2001
2,098
0
0
Also, we splitted the groups from each year into males and females.

In the 1890 groups, the females overall had a smaller population than men. But in the 1920 groups, the females are outliving men now. I've read that the latter is because men tend to be more stressed which takes a toll on their immune system, that they live a more unhealthy lifestyle (smoking, drinking, stuff like that). But why did the men outlive the women in the pre-1890 years?
 

QueHuong

Platinum Member
Nov 21, 2001
2,098
0
0
I really need this question answered:

My data shows that in the group for the people who died before 1890, the male population was greater than the female's for the most part. Why is that? My guess is that male were still the muchly dominant working sex that they had access to most of the money and could afford healthcare.
 

amnesiac

Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
15,781
1
71
Originally posted by: MindStorm
I really need this question answered:

My data shows that in the group for the people who died before 1890, the male population was greater than the female's for the most part. Why is that? My guess is that male were still the muchly dominant working sex that they had access to most of the money and could afford healthcare.

There was no "healthcare" system.

The fact is that a LOT of women died during childbirth.
Women had more strenuous lives. Do research on the available career options for women - working in fields, etc. Often a lot more stressful than the men.
 

amnesiac

Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
15,781
1
71
Originally posted by: tjaisv
Longer lives in this f'ing reality. It's better to have never been born.

Then why don't you do us all a favor and stop existing? We really, really don't give half a rat's ass that your life sucks. Leave us alone.
 

Encryptic

Diamond Member
May 21, 2003
8,885
0
0
Improved sanitation
Better living conditions
Advances in medicine.
Most of the world has become more or less civilized, with less wars being fought over territory, etc.
Better working conditions
Exercise and nutrition are more recognized as important to a long life
Evolution has probably played a factor in slowly building resistance to disease, etc.
Famines and plagues are much less common than they were hundreds of years ago