Description
Among the aims of the EHPS-net are to help launch new longitudinal databases and to provide advice on how these can be developed for research purposes. This event on modern historical databases and medical research fits into these aims. We aim to highlight the middle of the 20th century as the period when population growth was fastest, which is an understudied period in demographic and health terms in most countries. A main reason for this is a relative lack of digitized, longitudinal microdata because of the judicial blocking of data types, which for earlier periods are transcribed for genealogical purposes. We organize the seminar in Copenhagen as part of our support for the Danish plans to launch two longitudinal databases. For medical research, the 20th century population registers will be most useful in epidemiological studies of causes of disease and more general public health issues. In particular, the genealogical data will be crucial to learn more about hereditary causes of complex diseases and fully exploit the potential of the rich biobanks, health registries and cohort studies already found in many countries. Both for social and medical studies of inter-generational relationships, it is valuable that the longitudinal registers include extensive socio-economic information. This opens up many possibilities for investigations of relationships between genes and the environment and the relative importance of these factors. The twentieth century forms a critical period in the study of medical advances, fertility decline, urbanization, international migration, household composition, occupational structure, and gender equality. For medical research on genetic diseases or epigenetics where it is necessary to identify several generations, historical population registers will be crucial. The work to extend the causes of death registers backwards in time will especially benefit from international cooperation.| Period | 2016 |
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| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Copenhagen, DenmarkShow on map |