Yuriy Vladimirovich Ryabov,
Candidate in Historical Sciences, Krasnoyarsk State Agrarian University, Krasnoyarsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Maria Viktorovna Sentyabova,
Candidate in Historical Sciences, Krasnoyarsk State Agrarian University, Krasnoyarsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Yekaterina Vladimirovna Smirnova,
graduate student, Siberian Federal University, Krasnoyarsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Infant and Child Mortality in Krasnoyarsk (1959–1965)
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2021-4-13
The article is devoted to the understudied problem of child and infant mortality in Krasnoyarsk during the period of Seven-year plan (1959–1965), whose tasks included, among others, considerable rise of living standards of population, which was inseparably linked to the quality of its medical care. Infant and child mortality rates are one of the most important indicators of a society’s social well-being. They indicate the degree of a particular society’s transition from the traditional demographic order to the industrial one. Throughout the whole period under study infant and child mortality in Krasnoyarsk was decreasing rather slowly. Infant mortality had a clear gender differentiation. Boys were dying significantly more often than girls under the age of 1 year. In addition, infant mortality had a pronounced seasonal pattern. It was high in winter and the first half of spring and minimal in summer and early autumn. Among the causes of child and infant mortality in Krasnoyarsk during the period under study the first place was occupied by pneumonia – up to 45 % of all cases, the second and the third places – by neonatal diseases and gastrointestinal infections. The high share of pneumonia in the breakdown of child mortality is due to the high prevalence of this disease. Besides, Krasnoyarsk public health system had a number of drawbacks in diagnostics and treatment of pneumonia in children: insufficient hospitalization of the diseased, overload of hospitals with sick children, poor material and technical base and obsolete buildings of somatic hospitals, which led to the spread of infections among the patients. To solve these problems a number of measures were taken in Krasnoyarsk from 1959 to 1965. The number of medical stations was increased and the material and technical condition of children hospitals was improved. Work was also carried out to raise the qualification of doctors and medical assistants and to popularize of sanitary-hygienic knowledge among the city population. All of the above measures led to a significant reduction in the spread of pneumonia and a decrease in infant and child mortality.
Publishing: 28/08/2021
The article has been received by the editor on 01.06.2021
How to cite: Ryabov Yu.V., Sentyabova M.V., Smirnova E.V. Infant and Child Mortality in Krasnoyarsk (1959–1965) // Historical Courier, 2021, No. 4 (18), pp. 142–153. [Available online:] http://istkurier.ru/data/2021/ISTKURIER-2021-4-13.pdf
Links: Issue 4 2021
Keywords: healthcare; morbidity; mortality; children; Eastern Siberia; Krasnoyarsk Krai
The study was carried out with the financial support of the RFBR, the Government of the Krasnoyarsk Territory and the Regional Science Foundation within the framework of the scientific project No. 19-49-240002.