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
Coulsdon and Purley 1953
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Coulsdon]
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been kept separate from those of the mental hospital patients who
would previously have been transferred to their own districts, and
as far as practicable throughout this Report a distinction has been
made between them. It will be appreciated, however, that this
procedure is inevitably cumbersome, time absorbing and apt to
be somewhat confusing.,
Reverting to the total death rate for 1953, that for normal
residents would have been 9.9 but for the new system, and this is
the average crude death rate since the war and an improvement
on the rate of 10.2 last year. Similarly, if it is still appropriate to
use the "comparability factor" to this section of the population,
the "corrected death rate" would have been 8.6. The death rate
for England and Wales was 10.8 in 1948, 11.7 in 1949, 11.6 in
1950, 12.5 in 1951, 11.3 in 1952, and 11.4 in 1953.
The principal causes of death locally during 1953 together with the rates per cent of total deaths, are shown in the following table, the deaths and comparable death rates among ordinary residents being shown in brackets:—
| Cause. | Number of Deaths. | Rate per cent, of Total Deaths. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heart and circulatory diseases | 486 | (321) | 49.1 | (50.2) |
| Cancer, malignant disease | 155 | (128) | 15.7 | (20.0) |
| Pneumonia | 93 | (22) | 9.4 | (3.4) |
| Bronchitis | 42 | (38) | 4.2 | (5.9) |
| Accidents | 19 | (9) | 1.9 | (1.4) |
| Tuberculosis (all forms) | 19 | (12) | 1.9 | (1.9) |
(A full list of the causes of deaths and the ages at which
they occurred is given in Table IV. in the Appendix.)
HEART AND CIRCULATORY DISEASE.
Among the ordinary residents the death rate from heart and
other circulatory disease, 4.95, was lower than in 1952, but higher
than in 1949 and 1950. As, however, this group includes a high
proportion of elderly people dying virtually of old age, it is not
regretable if this particular rate remains high.
Ignoring the mental hospital group, this year 83 per cent of
residents dying from heart and circulatory disease were over 65
years of age at the time of death, compared with 79 per cent in
1952 and 81 per cent in each of the previous three years, while no
less than 52 per cent were over 75 years of age. (Incidentally, 69
per cent of deaths from all causes were over 65 years, compared
with 67, 71, 69, and 61 in the four preceding years).
CANCER.
The cancer death rate in respect of normal residents was 2.00
in 1953 compared with 1.78, 1.91, 1.84 and 1.73 in the last four
years and an average of 1.78 since the war. In recent years there
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