OPP-PRF: Demographic, Epidemiologic, and Social Consequences of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in Alaska

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This biocultural research explores the long-term demographic, epidemiologic, and social consequences of the 1918 influenza pandemic in Alaska. Using mixed methods, the research will evaluate pandemic impacts on life expectancy and survivorship in a region where infections such as tuberculosis and other respiratory diseases were prevalent. The proposed work will also investigate how catastrophic mortality events affect health, demography, and society in the decades after the pandemic ended.This project applies a mixed-methods approach, integrating quantitative demographic data with qualitative archival records from 1910–1939. Demographic impacts will be analyzed using multiple decrement life tables for major causes of death (respiratory diseases, tuberculosis, cancer, cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal infections, etc.) to detect changes in life expectancy and survivorship. Survival analyses will be performed to assess significant differences among regions and between males and females. Finally, thematic analyses of qualitative archival data will identify major themes related to the pandemic, health, subsistence, and social organization. This project is jointly funded by the OPP Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program, the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), and the Arctic Social Sciences Program.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.