Age at Death in Males and Females from Infectious Diseases

Jazlyn Harris, ANT418: Seminar in Biological AnthropologyFaculty Mentor(s): Professor Julie Wieczkowski, Anthropology In the nineteenth century, the majority of the deaths in New England (predominately in Massachusetts and Rhode Island) was caused by infectious diseases (Noymer & Jarosz, 2008). The percentages of deaths due to infections were very similar in both males and females. I, therefore, investigated if males and females die at a similar age as well. This research was conducted using the archives from Margaret L. Wendt Archive and Resource Center, Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo NY, and I used scans of Death Registers Volume E 1894-1902. I collected age at death data from 50 males and 50 females who died from an infectious cause of death in 1895.The average age at death for males was 30.8 years. The average age at death for females was 34.6 years. As a result, there was a lack of age difference between males and females. There is a clear correlation between the differences in the percentages of death (Noymer & Jarosz, 2008) and the differences in age at death in both males and females.https://digitalcommons.buffalostate.edu/srcc-sp21-psychsocsci/1013/thumbnail.jp