Demography and Nutrition Evidence from Historical and Contemporary Populations

by Scott, Susan; Duncan, Christopher J.

• ISBN13: 9780632059836
• ISBN10: 0632059834
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-05-08
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This exciting new book looks in detail at the effects of nutrition on population dynamics. Drawing examples from around the world, and using knowledge of modern biochemistry and physiology of nutrition, and time-series statistical analysis of data, the authors explain historical epidemiology, providing a full and fascinating insight into this fundamental subject.

Author Biography

Dr Susan Scott and Professor Christopher J. Duncan are both at the School of Biological Sciences, University of Liverpool, UK

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Introduction	1	(15)
The history of human diet	2	(1)
The diet of the hunter-gatherers	3	(1)
Demographic change linked to the beginnings of agriculture	4	(1)
To which diet is modern man adapted?	5	(1)
Consequences of an agricultural life-style	6	(2)
Domestication of animals	8	(1)
Interactions between demographic pressures and diet	9	(1)
Height and nutrition	10	(1)
The working class diet in pre-industrial England	10	(6)
Mortality Oscillations in 404 English Parishes -- a Metapopulation Study	16	(9)
Use of time-series analysis techniques	16	(3)
Exogenous oscillations in 404 parishes	19	(1)
The role of wheat prices in driving exogenous population oscillations	20	(1)
Short wavelength oscillation in baptisms in 404 parishes	21	(1)
Conclusions	22	(3)
The Staple Food Supply: Fluctuating Wheat Prices and Malnutrition	25	(20)
Hypotheses to account for fluctuating grain prices	25	(2)
Sources for the data series	27	(1)
Cycles in the wheat price index	27	(1)
Oats and barley price indices	28	(2)
Correspondence between the grain price indices in England	30	(4)
The effect of seasonal temperatures on wheat prices	34	(4)
The effect of rainfall on wheat prices	38	(1)
Wheat prices and short wavelength temperature cycles	38	(1)
Use of a predicted wheat prices series	39	(1)
What drove the different cycles in wheat prices?	40	(1)
Rust and other parasitic infestations of grain crops	41	(2)
Conclusions	43	(2)
Famine	45	(31)
Major famines in world history	45	(1)
The demographic impact of famine	46	(1)
Changes in fertility	47	(2)
The Bangladesh famine of 1974--5: a case study	49	(2)
The Dutch famine of 1944--5: a case study	51	(4)
The siege of Leningrad, 1941--4	55	(1)
Why do women survive famine better than men?	56	(1)
Famines in pre-industrial England	57	(6)
Famine at Penrith, Cumbria, 1623: a case study	63	(3)
Interacting economic factors causing famines in northwest England	66	(4)
The mortality crisis of 1623 in northwestern England	70	(5)
Conclusions	75	(1)
Long-term Demographic Effects of even a Small Famine	76	(16)
Endogenous oscillations in the population at Penrith, Cumbria, England	76	(3)
Modelling the population dynamics	79	(4)
Incorporation of density-dependent constraints into the matrix model	83	(5)
Conclusions: endogenous population oscillations	88	(4)
Fertility	92	(27)
The importance of body fat	92	(1)
Adipose tissue	93	(1)
The role of leptin in the control of fertility	93	(2)
Menarche	95	(1)
Is leptin needed for the initiation of puberty?	96	(1)
Nutrition and fertility in the twentieth century	97	(1)
Hutterite women: the upper limit of fertility?	98	(1)
Fertility in the bushmen of the Kalahari Desert	99	(1)
Effects of chronic malnutrition on fertility: a case study	100	(8)
Procreative power	108	(2)
Fertility in pre-industrial England	110	(2)
Breast-feeding, fertility and population growth in the twentieth century	112	(3)
The menopause	115	(1)
Does malnutrition really affect fecundity?	116	(1)
Overview of the fertility levels in England during a 400-year period	117	(2)
Nutrition and Pregnancy	119	(24)
Clues from the geographical distribution of infant mortality rates	120	(1)
The data series	121	(1)
The placenta	122	(1)
Programming	123	(1)
Proportionate small size at birth	124	(1)
The mechanisms that underlie programming of the embryo	125	(1)
Maternal--foetal conflict	126	(1)
Foetal adaptations to malnutrition	126	(2)
Overview of the effects of maternal undernutrition on the three stages of gestation	128	(1)
The effects of maternal nutrition on foetal growth and development	128	(1)
Fingerprints	129	(1)
Relationship between foetal growth and adult lung function	130	(1)
Maternal diet and the immune function of the offspring	131	(1)
Micronutrients and foetal growth	132	(2)
Supplementation of the maternal diet during pregnancy	134	(1)
Protein nutrition in the perinatal period	135	(2)
Stress hormones and pregnancy	137	(1)
Intergenerational effects on foetal development	138	(1)
Recommended nutrient intake in pregnant women today	139	(2)
Conclusions	141	(2)
Infancy	143	(17)
Lactation	143	(1)
Nutritional requirements in infancy today	144	(3)
Nutritional value of breast milk	147	(2)
Low birthweight infants	149	(2)
The malnourished infant	151	(2)
Weaning	153	(3)
The age of weaning	156	(2)
Catch-up growth	158	(2)
Infant Mortality	160	(35)
Bourgeois-Pichat plots	161	(5)
Infant mortality in pre-industrial England	166	(1)
Infant mortality at Penrith, Cumbria, England: a case study	167	(8)
The three social classes in the population at Penrith	175	(1)
Diets in the different social classes of a marginal community	175	(3)
The maternal diet in pre-industrial Cumbria	178	(2)
Birth intervals following deaths in infancy at Penrith	180	(1)
Infant mortality in the three social classes at Penrith	181	(2)
Breast-feeding and wet-nursing at Penrith	183	(4)
Indicators of nutritional deficiency in pre-industrial Penrith	187	(2)
Overview of the effects of malnutrition and nursing practices in the different social classes at Penrith	189	(3)
Contribution of malnutrition and differential nursing practices to steady-state dynamics at Penrith	192	(3)
Exogenous Cycles: A Case Study	195	(24)
Interactions of exogenous cycles	195	(2)
The short wavelength cycle in child burials	197	(2)
Adult mortality cycles	199	(1)
Infant mortality at Penrith	200	(4)
Short wavelength oscillation in baptisms at Penrith	204	(2)
Medium wavelength oscillation in adult burials at Penrith	206	(1)
Oscillations in migration at Penrith	206	(1)
Interactions between the different oscillations: a demographic overview	207	(4)
Variation in the interaction of exogenous cycles at Penrith in different cohorts	211	(8)
The Amelioration of Infant Mortality in Rural England	219	(23)
Infant mortality in rural Shropshire, 1561--1810	219	(5)
Infant mortality in England, 1550--1849	224	(5)
The 26 rural parishes studied by Wrigley et al.	229	(3)
Infant mortality rates in France in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries	232	(2)
The population boom after 1750	234	(4)
Effects of nutrition on steady-state population dynamics	238	(1)
Infant mortality in nineteenth and twentieth century England	238	(4)
Iodine Deficiency and Endogenous Mortality	242	(10)
Seasonal changes in iodine metabolism	243	(1)
Effects of iodine deficiency	243	(3)
Endemic goitre in England	246	(2)
Case study of Chesterfield, Derbyshire	248	(1)
Endogenous mortality and iodine deficiency in England and Wales in the twentieth century	249	(3)
Seasonality	252	(17)
Astrology	253	(1)
Seasonality of births	254	(3)
Seasonality of infant deaths in developing countries	257	(1)
Seasonality of baptisms in England, 1613--30	258	(1)
Seasonality of baptisms at Penrith, Cumbria, 1600--1800	259	(1)
Seasonality of baptisms in England, 1600--1800	260	(2)
Seasonality of neonatal mortality in pre-industrial England	262	(3)
Seasonality of abortions and stillbirths	265	(4)
Sex Ratios	269	(6)
Why are there more live male births?	270	(1)
The importance of sample size	271	(1)
The preference for sons	271	(2)
Does maternal nutrition affect the primary or secondary sex ratios?	273	(2)
Childhood Mortality and Infectious Diseases	275	(28)
The biology of infectious diseases	275	(1)
Epidemiology and modelling of infectious diseases	276	(2)
Interaction of nutrition and infection	278	(1)
The impact of malnutrition on resistance to infection	279	(3)
The effect of malnutrition on the mortality from infectious diseases	282	(2)
Diarrhoeal diseases	284	(4)
Conclusions: nutrition and infectious diseases	288	(1)
Smallpox in rural towns	288	(2)
Smallpox in London	290	(3)
Measles epidemics in London, 1630--1837	293	(4)
Whooping cough epidemics in London, 1701--1812	297	(3)
Direct effects of malnutrition on child mortality	300	(3)
Population Dynamics, Disease and Malnutrition in the Nineteenth Century in England	303	(13)
Smallpox in England and Wales, 1847--93	303	(2)
Scarlet fever in England and Wales, 1847--93	305	(2)
Diphtheria in England and Wales, 1855--93	307	(2)
Scarlet fever in Liverpool, 1848--80	309	(2)
Measles in Liverpool, 1863--1900	311	(1)
Whooping cough in Liverpool, 1863--1900	312	(4)
Ageing	316	(13)
Human survival curves	317	(3)
Life expectancy	320	(2)
How does a restricted diet decrease the rate of ageing?	322	(2)
Human longevity and diet	324	(3)
Dietary fats and ageing	327	(1)
Are the rates of ageing determined in utero?	327	(2)
Conclusions	329	(8)
To which diet are we adapted?	330	(1)
Nutrition in pregnancy	331	(3)
Overview of the interaction of human demography and nutrition	334	(1)
Malthusian demographic theory	335	(2)
Appendix	337	(3)
References	340	(23)
Index	363