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
Edmonton 1912
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Edmonton]
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147
Correlation between Decayed Teeth and
Enlarged Tonsils.
Decayed teeth are sometimes held to be responsible for unhealthy
conditions of the throat, and among other things for the presence of
enlarged tonsils and adenoids. In the 1909 and 1910 reports tables
were given showing the correlation between these conditions to vary
between 0.0 and 0.7, a correlation which is extremely slight and
indicates but very faint relationship between them.
Below are similar tables for the children inspected in 1912, for
boys and girls separately. The children with adenoids only are included
in the last column.
Correlation between Decayed Teeth and Enlarged Tonsils:—
TABLE XXVII.
| Boys. | Girls. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tonsils Normal. | Tonsils slightly enlarged. | Tonsils very enlarged. | Tonsils Normal. | Tonsils slightly enlarged. | Tonsils very enlarged. | |
| Teeth sound | 832 | 139 | 42 | 680 | 128 | 45 |
| 1—3 decayed teeth | 786 | 152 | 52 | 624 | 95 | 54 |
| Over 4 decayed teeth.. | 208 | 57 | 14 | 165 | 38 | 21 |
The correlation between decayed teeth and enlarged tonsils is found
from this table to be for boys, .08; and for girls, .09; in each case
positive. Taking the correlation for one age only—that of thirteen—
it is found to be .085 for boys, and .076 for girls. We find, therefore,
that there is generally a! very slight positive correlation.
To show the relationship, a percentage table is given:—
TABLE XXVIII.
| Boys. | Girls. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teeth Sound. | 1—3 Decayed Teeth. | Over 3 Decayed Teeth. | Teeth Sound. | 1—3 Decayed Teeth. | Over 3 Decayed Teeth. | |
| Tonsils normal | 82.2 | 79.4 | 74.5 | 79.7 | 80.7 | 73.6 |
| Tonsils slightly enlarged | 13.7 | 15.4 | 20.5 | 15.0 | 12.3 | 17.0 |
| Tonsils markedly enlarged | 4.1 | 5.2 | 5.0 | 5.3 | 7.0 | 9.4 |
| lOO.O | lOO.O | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | |