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- Title
Pellagra in Late Nineteenth Century Italy: Effects of a Deficiency Disease.
- Authors
Ginnaio, Monica
- Abstract
Pellagra, a nutritional deficiency disease linked to a deficit in vitamin B3 (niacin), affected - and until recently continued to affect - poor populations whose diet consisted almost exclusively of maize (corn) for prolonged periods. It appeared in the eighteenth century, and up to the early twentieth it was still found in parts of Italy, Spain, Portugal, Eastern Europe and the United States. In the twentieth century, pellagra was present in Egypt and some eastern and southern African countries, including South Africa. In this article, which focuses on nineteenth-century Italy and particularly the Veneto, the most severely affected Italian region, Monica GINNAIO reviews the history and epidemiology of the disease, then analyses differences in prevalence and mortality by region, occupational status, age group and sex. She shows the predominance of the disease among the most disadvantaged social groups and women of reproductive age, though no massive impact on fertility has been detected.
- Subjects
ITALY; VITAMIN deficiency; DEFICIENCY diseases; PELLAGRA; NUTRITIONALLY induced diseases; DEMOGRAPHY; ITALIAN history -- 19th century
- Publication
Population (1634-2941), 2011, Vol 66, Issue 3/4, p583
- ISSN
1634-2941
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.3917/pope.1103.0583