The incidence of influenza among persons of different economic status during the epidemic of 1918

Abstract

Edgar Sydenstricker (1881–1936) worked in several capacities for the U.S. Public Health Service from 1915 until his death in 1936. Although his formal education was in economics, he served as a statistician and survey designer and manager. He authored or co-authored more than 100 papers and publications, and components of several reports and analyses of public health issues of the time can also be credited to his pen. Today, Sydenstricker’s work is only occasionally cited by researchers and authors exploring various aspects of public health. Many of the survey and analysis techniques he pioneered have become routine methods in epidemiology and public health. Sydenstricker was influential in moving public health from a purely mortality-based data and analysis system to a system that captured socioeconomic status, morbidity, and personal status in addition to the then-traditional way of examining populations. He innovated. Most commentators on Sydenstricker’s contributions focus on his work in interweaving socioeconomic status into public health thinking. While his work is most often observed for its political meaning, Sydenstricker’s approaches should be characterized in a more general manner that reflects his true prescience in public health. Examination of his work shows that the commentators reached reasonable conclusions about its social applicability. The true influence of his contributions, however, becomes clear through a less political perspective. When assessed in mor…