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49
rate of 0.04 was registered for England and Wales whilst that for
Greater London was some three times greater at 0.12.
Infantile Mortality
Infant Mortality of any given locality is measured by relating the
number of deaths of children under one year of age recorded
during the year to the number of live births registered for that
particular area during the same period.
Bad housing, overcrowding, poor sanitation, low standards of
education, illegitimacy, all tend to produce higher infant mortality
rates. It follows therefore that the infant mortality rate should
provide a reasonably accurate indication of the social circumstances
of any particular area. However, it must be borne in mind
that as infant mortality has now reached relatively small proportions,
any slight deviation in the number of deaths tends to
misleading fluctuations in the rate and only a long-term appraisal
is likely to reflect the true position.
Since the beginning of the century substantial improvements
have been achieved. In 1901 the infant mortality rate for the area
now known as the London Borough of Greenwich was 130 per
1,000 live births, the aotual number of children dying before
reaching the age of 1 year being 818. Comparable figures for 1970
are 22.72 and 72 respectively.
In registering an increase of 4.95 over that calculated for 1969
our present infant mortality rate of 22.72 is 3.69 above the average
for the previous 5 years and compares unfavourably with the rate
of 18.2 for England and Wales and that of 17.8 for Greater
London. Inner London returned a rate of 20.4.
It is pertinent to record that this unwelcomed advance in our
infant deaths, from 58 in 1969 to the current figure of 72, was
confined almost entirely to those babies over 4 weeks old. Paradoxically,
our increased infant mortality for the current year
coincided with the Borough's lowest ever stillbirth rate and the
resultant reproductive wastage, i.e. stillbirths and infant deaths
combined, actually showed a reduction from the previous year.
Prematurity is by far the most common cause of infant mortality
and it may well be that, in many instances, the mere occurrence of
a premature birth is an indication of the existence of conditions, as
yet occult or perhaps not fully understood, which are not con-