A study of the effect of inbreeding in Skellefteå during the 19th century : Using Cox Proportional hazard model to analyze lifespans and Poisson/Negative Binomial regression to analyze fertility

Sammanfattning: Inbreeding is defined as when two individuals who are related mate and produce offspring. The level of inbreeding for an individual can be determined by calculating an inbreeding coefficient. Inbreeding can enhance both positive and negative traits. The risk for recessive diseases also increase. Data from old church records from the region of Skellefteå covering individuals from the late 17th century to the early 20th century has been made available. From this data parent-child relations can be observed and levels of inbreeding calculated. By analyzing the available data using Cox Proportional Hazard regression model it was shown that the level inbreeding affected the lifespan of an individual negatively if the parents are second cousins or more closely related. Using Poisson- and Negative Binomial regression, no evicence of an effect of inbreeding of fertility could be found.