title: Exploring unobserved heterogeneity in perinatal and neonatal mortality risks: The case of an Italian sharecropping community, 1900-39.
abstract: Previous researchers have found that traditional determinants explain only a limited part of the variation in perinatal and infant mortality at the family level. In the study reported in this paper, we explored the factors that make the perinatal/neonatal death risk more heterogeneous across families. We estimated logistic regressions with cluster random effects at the maternal level, using data from the Italian village of Granarolo from 1900 to 1939. We estimated the effects of selected predictors on perinatal/neonatal mortality and unexplained inter-family variation. We found that non-rural skilled and lower-skilled workers experienced higher perinatal and neonatal mortality risks. Unexplained heterogeneity at the maternal level was lower for women living in sharecropper families than for those in landless labourer and non-rural worker families. Unexplained perinatal and neonatal mortality components were also due to socio-economic differences and were not necessarily related only to maternal biological features or shared genetic frailty.
authors.affiliation: a University of Bologna.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Scalone
authors.affiliation: a University of Bologna.
authors.forename: Patrizia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Agati
authors.affiliation: a University of Bologna.
authors.forename: Aurora
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Angeli
authors.affiliation: b University of Padova.
authors.forename: Annalisa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Donno
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D000067565:Farmers / Q000266:history*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007226:Infant Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007558:Italy; D016015:Logistic Models; D054238:Perinatal Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D012424:Rural Population
keywords: historical demography; intra-class correlation coefficient; median odds ratio; perinatal and neonatal mortality; sharecropping contracts; unobserved heterogeneity