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Andrea Tilstra: “The Indirect Consequences of Mortality Crises”
November 27, 2023 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Abstract: The immediate, direct effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mortality are felt worldwide. Yet this is not the only mortality crisis the world has witnessed in recent decades. In the US, the
opioid epidemic, increased automobile deaths and homicides, and, more generally, the midlife
mortality crisis all contribute to the deteriorating average lifespan of Americans today. The
consequences of these crises span beyond changes to population mortality. Drawing on evidence
from the US and the Netherlands, this presentation will (1) document how various measures of
population health change during and because of mortality crises, and (2) theorize about the
pathways through which these changes emerge.
Bio: Dr. Andrea Tilstra is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow at the University of Oxford.
She is based in the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, in the Demographic Science
Unit, and at Nuffield College, and is an affiliate in the Department of Sociology. In her MSCA
fellowship, HealthShocks, she studies the indirect consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for
population health, with a keen eye toward maternal, fetal, and child health. Her work is also
funded by the Dutch Ministry of Health and the University of Oxford John Fell Fund.
Andrea is a quantitative medical sociologist and social demographer, and her research focuses on
understanding how environmental shocks experienced by an entire society (e.g., period effects)
influence two key demographic processes: fertility and mortality. In her work, she identifies the
health consequences of policy changes, institutional practices, and large public health crises –
revealing how these trends further exacerbate existing health inequalities.
Previously, she was a senior postdoctoral researcher (2021-2023) with Prof. Jennifer Dowd on
her ERC grant, MORTAL. Andrea holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Colorado
Boulder (2021), where she was affiliated with the CU Population Center and Institute of
Behavioral Science.
