Was the first public health campaign successful? Articles uri icon

publication date

  • January 2019

start page

  • 143

end page

  • 175

issue

  • 2

volume

  • 11

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 1945-7782

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1945-7790

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. © 2019 American Economic Journal: Applied Economics.