EXPECTANCY RATE AND CHILDHOOD MORTALITY BASED ON DEMOGRAPHICS ON OAKLAWN CEMETERY

EXPECTANCY RATE AND CHILDHOOD MORTALITY BASED ON DEMOGRAPHICS ON OAKLAWN CEMETERY

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Introduction on Life Expectancy

Human beings have different survival periods based on their physical environments, health or other factors affecting the normal way of living. When an individual is born, the person expects to live a maximum period of time until the moment when his/her body will no longer be able to function normally due to old age. The measure or amount of time an individual expects to live on Earth from the moment of birth is referred to as expectancy rate, where all the factors influencing the behaviors of the person are weighed and compared in order to determine such figures. Some of those factors that may act as a hindrance to longer lives include sex, gender or demographic factors which naturally affect the length of time which an individual should spend while alive.

Childhood Mortality

Childhood mortality on the other hand can be defined as the measure of how infants or children of below five years of age die. Young children, unlike the adults are quite delicate and are always prone to diseases and other complications which may end up finishing their lives at an unexpectedly early stage. Childhood mortality can be classified into two; infant mortality and child mortality. Infant mortality can be described as death of young children of below one year of age, where most of cases happen during the delivery. Child mortality is death of infants of below five years of age, where according to biological researches conducted by scientists claim that diseases are sole cause of these deaths (Woolf, Schoomaker, 2019).

Epidemics in Oklahoma during 1890-1900

According to my research, it came to my attention that most of deaths not only in Tusla but also in other places occurred due to massacres or calamities (Konrad, et.al 2018). Oklahoma, in this case happened to be one of the demographic areas which have a lot of history in mass death. In June 1921, people born during the period of 1890-1900 suffered a great loss of their lives and those of close people as fight arose between the races. The whites, supported fully by the administration raided the black community, destroying their homes and businesses and killing them too. That massacre caused instant deaths and other connected ones later on.

Unlike the ancient times, mortality rates of children of below five years of age have gone down in different parts of the world due to advancement of technology (Konrad, et.al 2018). Scientists have come up with unique and accurate ways of learning and preventing diseases alongside governments which have put in place better ways of delivering infants by the expectant mothers. Incidences leading to massive deaths of innocent human beings have gone down for the past centuries, where people are living at the best ways of protecting themselves as much as they can. This paper contains a report which was done on findings about expectancy and mortality rates of people around Tusla, Oklahoma, based on deaths recorded at Oaklawn cemetery around the area.

Materials and Methods of Research

My research was based on records from a cemetery known as Oaklawn, which is located in Oklahoma in Tusla. The mortality and life expectancy rate was calculated with death figures recorded from the year 1890 to 1900, where a comparison was made on death ages to work on the expectancy rate. With help of internet sources which contain death figures of different nations, I also used information from surveys and questionnaires distributed to people of seventy five years and above so that I could get information regarding lives of people who lived slightly before them. I concentrated my study on the people living around Oklahoma, as my main source of information was a cemetery from the neighborhood (Woolf, Schoomaker, 2019). During my research, I obtained demographics from Oaklawn cemetery, which showed the exact deaths recorded during the year 1890 to 1900. I used different ages of the victims to make a table which helped in calculation of expectancy rate and evaluation of findings.

Results of Research Findings

Table showing Mortality Rate in Oaklawn Cemetery between the years 1890-1900

Age Limits in Years Gender

Male

Female

0-1 7

5

2-5 1

1

6-10 11-15 16-20 1

21-25 2 2

26-30 4 31-35 36-40 1 41-45 1

46-50 1 51-55 1

56-60 1 61-65 2 1

66-70 71-75 1

From the above table, I used findings and figures drawn from the cemetery to come up with a calculation which determined the average mortality rate based on different ages which the victims passed away.

Life Expectancy

Life Expectancy is calculated as follows;

Total sum of the ages of the victims which is then divided by the total number of individual victims (Gopolani, et.al 2018)

Sum of ages = 746 years

Number of deaths = 32

746÷32 = 23.3 years or 23 years

From the above information which shows the mortality rate reported and recorded at the cemetery, it is evident that infant rate is a bit higher than all other mortality rates including maternal, infant or crude rate. The statement means that a larger number of deaths of infants were recorded during that century with age of one year and below. Arithmetically, twelve deaths were recorded on infants of age 1 year and below where males were seven and females five in number. The eldest death case during that period was that of a lady aged 75 years while the men had a lower age limit of 65 years. From this statement, it was evident that women survived longer than men during that period of ten years (Konrad, et.al 2018). The largest number of death fell under the category of men, where fewer women passed away during that cohort.

Discussion on Findings

General finding drawn from this study was that males died more than females during that period. According to the findings, I concluded that women had more chance of survival than men as shown on the table (Konrad, et.al 2018). A total of thirty two cases were recorded with victims of known origin and age, where nineteen of them happened to be males while the rest females. That gap showed clearly that women survived more than men during the period of 1890-1900. The main purpose of the study was to compare the life expectancy level of people during that period with the current rate and my study showed that men died at younger age compared to the females.

From my study, twelve infants of one year and below lost their lives during that period, meaning that there were poor services offered to the expectant mothers either during delivery of after giving birth(Woolf, Schoomaker, 2019) . During the period, there was civil unrest among the people of the area, which resulted to fights and death later during the year 1921. It can be concluded that the unrest gave the parents no chance to take care of their children hence they got infected with several diseases which were a bit hard for the government in charge to control.

Inability of the administrative system to control death of young children was also noted in the study, where children aged between one month and four years died with no action taken on the causes of such death. Biologically, death of a young child is always related to a either disease or other calamity, which should be prevented on prior notice (Beck, et.al 1982). This conclusion is made as there are no deaths recorded among the children aged between years six to nineteen, meaning that the people in charge were reluctant in taking care of younger infants.

More males died during their middle ages compared to the females. In the introduction part, death was connected to several causes, where life expectancy was based on whether some occurrences will happen or not. In this era, the region was affected by general unrest by the citizens where most of the young men indulged themselves in activities which some led to their deaths (Konrad, et.al 2018). According to my research, less females lost their lives during their middle ages, meaning that men per took on activities which endangered their lives more than women. Racial fights and misunderstanding happened to affect the region during that cohort; hence it was clear that men took part more than women.

Some of the cities and residential places had not developed by 1890, thus it was a hard task for the administrative government to control deaths by offering better medical services. In the same case, it was noted that women received special care and treatment more than men on incidences of calamities such as diseases, as their deaths are lower compared to those cases of men (Woolf, Schoomaker, 2019). It has taken quite a long time for some of the states in the United States to develop their territories, and Oklahoma happened to be one of the territories before its administrative ownership changed. Technologically, the advancement of medical facilities was a bit outdated at that time compared to current era, thus it was a hard task for the government to control some outbreaks of diseases which caused massive deaths. Lastly, it was clear that emergency services were mostly offered to the females, as male deaths seem to originate mostly from sudden diseases where no action was taken on the victims.

References

Beck, J. R., Kassirer, J. P., & Pauker, S. G. (1982). A convenient approximation of life expectancy (the “DEALE”): I. Validation of the method. The American journal of medicine, 73(6), 883-888.

Gopalani, S. V., Janitz, A. E., & Campbell, J. E. (2018). Trends in cervical cancer incidence and mortality in Oklahoma and the United States, 1999–2013. Cancer epidemiology, 56, 140-145.

Konrad, K. M., Dunlap, M., Patrick, P. H., Smith, C. M., McNeal, K., & Dorn Jr, T. R. D. J. (2018). Community based efforts to address infant mortality and disparities in Oklahoma. The Journal of the Oklahoma State Medical Association, 111(8), 762.

Roser, M., Ortiz-Ospina, E., & Ritchie, H. (2013). Life expectancy. Our World in Data.

Woolf, S. H., & Schoomaker, H. (2019). Life expectancy and mortality rates in the United States, 1959-2017. Jama, 322(20), 1996-2016.