Nosology and Mortality Patterns of Tuberculosis in Tasmania, 1860–1930

Rebecca Kippen, Monash University
Isabelle Cherkesly, Monash University

For much of the nineteenth century, it was widely held that those born and raised in the Australasian colonies were immune to tuberculosis. However by 1900, tuberculosis was recognised as the greatest single cause of death in Australasia—killing many young adults in their prime. In late nineteenth-century Tasmania, tuberculosis mortality peaked at ages 25–34 years for both sexes, while age-standardised mortality declined over time. This paper investigates the change in cause-of-death terminology used to describe tuberculosis, from consumption, to phthisis, to tuberculosis, and patterns of tuberculosis mortality over time. This analysis is based on a dataset of more than 100,000 individual-level Tasmanian death registrations.

Keywords: Historical Demography, Mortality and Longevity, Civil Registration and Vital Statistics, Data and Methods

See extended abstract.