London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Lewisham 1953
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Lewisham Borough]
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always been considerably more prevalent in the higher than in the
lower social groups and which has been thought to be associated
particularly with the so.called "nervous strain of living," appears to be
undergoing a decrease in gradient as far as social groups are concerned.
This social class difference may, however, not be so real as it appears
to be, probably from the fact that coronary death certification is not
fully differentiated from death certification from other heart diseases.
Allied diseases which may get mixed up with coronary disease are those
shown in the Registrar General's short list numbers 19, 20 and 21,
namely hypertension with heart disease, other heart disease, and other
circulatory disease respectively. The following table shows deaths from
these causes in the borough in representative years since 1928, the last
columns showing the percentages which the total deaths in different
subdivisions of the group bear to the total deaths from all causes :—
Table 10 Heart and circulation mortality
| Year | Deaths from | Total heart and circulation (all ages) | Age group 45.65 | Total deaths in borough | Percentage | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coronary diseases | Other heart diseases | Other circulatory diseases | Total | Coronary diseases | (e) of (h) | (f)of (h) | (g) of (h) | |||
| (a) | (b) | (c) | (d) | (e) | (f) | (g) | (h) | (i) | (J) | (k) |
| 1928 | 97 | 454 | 115 | 1993 | 23 | 5.8 | ||||
| 1933 | 516 | 117 | 633 | 162 | 2271 | 28 | 7.1 | |||
| 1938 | 659 | 139 | 798 | 178 | 2403 | 33 | 7.4 | |||
| 1943 | 583 | 64 | 647 | 129 | 2359 | 27 | 5.5 | |||
| 1948 | 696 | 63 | 759 | 155 | 2253 | 34 | 6.9 | ? | ||
| 1953 | 775 | 113 | 888 | 140 | 2502 | 35 | 5.6 | |||
| 1950 | 281 | 519 | 79 | 879 | 158 | 79 | 2413 | 36 | 6.5 | 3.3 |
| 1 | 288 | 528 | 78 | 894 | 154 | 87 | 2542 | 35 | 6.1 | 3.4 |
| 2 | 327 | 537 | 86 | 950 | 180 | 89 | 2580 | 37 | 7.0 | 3.5 |
| 3 | 331 | 444 | 113 | 888 | 140 | 84 | 2502 | 35 | 5.6 | 3.4 |
? means figure not available
Apart from the socalled "nervous strain" and "pressure of living,"
it has been suggested, with more and more evidence (none of it however
conclusive), that dietary factors may be of considerable importance both
in coronary disease and also in other degenerative diseases of the heart
and blood vessels. Statistics from certain occupied countries, particularly
Norway, during the war, when diet was considerably different to what
it was in prewar and postwar times, indicate that excess fat food and
more particularly perhaps excess dairy produce may have an effect on
these circulatory conditions. It is known that the state of blood vessels
has some connection with the amount of a substance called cholesterol