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43
Health Investigation: "Survey of Sickness."
A "Survey of Sickness" was made by the Government Social Survey
Organisation at the request of the Ministry of Health in Ilford during
September, 1948. Forty-seven enquiries were made among residents of the
town.
The object of the Survey, carried out at regular monthly intervals, and
based on samples of the population seeks to obtain information about the
amount of ill-health occurring in the country under present conditions. This
includes particularly ill-health not included in the ordinary statistics report
to the Medical Officers of Health and the Registrar General, which apply
only to deaths and to the more serious diseases. It is, for example, essential
to have information about the type and extent of minor illness, such as
coughs and colds and rheumatism, which frequently do not come to a doctor's
notice.
No information is available on these subjects and the only way of
obtaining it is by direct enquiry from samples of the population. It is
generally agreed that it is essential that the medical profession should have
this information.
Members of the general public who are included in each sample are
chosen by statistical methods so as to be representative of the whole population.
Only a limited number are selected from each district. No names are
included in the reports. All the information collected is analysed by medical
statisticians and represented in numerical tables.
The tables separate out results for particular groups of the population
in order to find out whether there is any special incidence of illness in any
particular section, and in order to do this efficiently, questions are asked
about the sex, age, housing and occupations of the people interviewed. For
this purpose a similar question is also asked about the economic group of
informants.
Officers carrying out the Survey have instructions to ask questions only
where there is willingness to answer, and each officer has a credential card
issued by the Government Social Survey on behalf of the Ministry of
Health. Only one person in every 200 has shown unwillingness to cooperate.
SECTION G.—FACTORIES.
The Factory and Workshop Act, 1901, was superseded by the Factories
Act, 1937, which came into operation on 1st July, 1938.
There are 449 factories with mechanical power on the register.
There are 346 factories without mechanical power on the register.
There are 186 outworkers on the register.