posted on 2020-08-18, 20:37authored byAvery Calkins
Between
1900 and 1940, tuberculosis moved from being the second highest cause of
death in the United States to no longer being a leading cause of death. The
historical causes of the decline in tuberculosis thus remain unclear. This
paper examines the role of public health demonstrations in the decline in
tuberculosis by studying the Framingham Community Health and Tuberculosis
Demonstration, a public health demonstration conducted in Framingham,
Massachusetts from 1917-1924. We measure the decreases in tuberculosis and
infant mortality during the Framingham Demonstration using a linear
regression model and the synthetic control model first used by Abadie and
Gardeazabal (2003). The linear regression model finds that tuberculosis
mortality decreased by approximately 22 deaths per 100,000 population and
infant mortality decreased by approximately 11 to 14 deaths per 1,000 live
births over the period of 1917-1923. The synthetic control model confirms
these findings.