Was the First Public Health Campaign Successful?
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Date
2019-04
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Abstract
The US tuberculosis (TB) movement pioneered many of the strategies of modern public health campaigns. Using newly transcribed mortality data at the municipal level for the period 1900-1917, we explore the effectiveness of public health measures championed by the TB movement, including the establishment of sanatoriums and open-air camps, prohibitions on public spitting and common cups, and requirements that local health officials be notified about TB cases. Our results suggest that these and other anti-TB measures can explain, at most, only a small portion of the overall decline in pulmonary TB mortality observed during the period under study. (JEL, H51, I12, I18, N31, N32)
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Anderson, D. Mark, Kerwin Kofi Charles, Claudio Las Heras Olivares, and Daniel I. Rees. "Was the First Public Health Campaign Successful?." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 11, no. 2 (April 2019): 143-175. DOI:10.1257/app.20170411.