Does a turbulent history lead to turbulent life expectancy trends? Evidence from the Baltic States. Issue 4 (2nd October 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Vallin, Jacques; Jasilionis, Domantas; Meslé, France
• Is Part Of: Historical methods. Volume 50:Issue 4(2017)
• Page Start: 191
• Page End: 209
• Publication Date: 2017-10-02
• Subjects: Baltic countries -- Estonia -- Latvia -- Lithuania -- data quality -- mortality estimates -- historical mortality trends -- political shocks -- East-West divide; Social sciences -- Periodicals; Onderzoeksmethoden; Electronic journals; Périodique électronique (Descripteur de forme); Ressource Internet (Descripteur de forme); 300.5
• DOI: 10.1080/01615440.2017.1338977
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0161-5440

Abstract

ABSTRACT: After the time of the Great Duchy of Lithuania and that of their inclusion to Russian Empire, the three Baltic countries got their first independence after WWI, but WWII forced them to enter the Soviet Union for almost five decades before getting their second independence and resuming with market economy, to finally join the European Union. Such strong historical changes caused major impacts (either positive or negative) on the implementation of the health transition in the region, quite interesting to document, but they also produced dramatic changes in the quality and the accuracy of information required to compute mortality indicators. The aim of this article is to briefly summarize existing knowledge on mortality in the Baltic region for the past two centuries, but focusing more precisely on the consequences of getting in and then getting out of the Soviet system in terms of health and survival.