London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
City of Westminster 1931
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Westminster, City of]
This page requires JavaScript
16
The causes of death are set out in Table IV. There was an increase
among males of deaths from the following causes :—Influenza, enteritis,
septic diseases, pulm. tuberculosis, cancer, accidents, cirrhosis, bronchitis
and other respiratory diseases, the increase in the last-named diseases
being especially marked.
Among females the causes showing an increase were influenza,
enteritis, septic diseases, diabetes, non-pulm. tuberculosis, bronchitis
and other diseases of the respiratory system.
The distribution of deaths in the various wards of the City are
shown in the following table, and may be compared with the similar
figures during the four preceding years :—
| — | 1927. | 1928. | 1929. | 1930. | 1931. | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M. | F. | Total. | M. | F. | Total. | M. | F. | Total. | M. | F. | Total | M. | F. | Total. | |
| — | |||||||||||||||
| SI | |||||||||||||||
Infantile Mortality.—The corrected death-rate of infants for Westminster
was 75-1 per 1,000 births. The mortality among legitimate
infants was 69-6 per 1,000; that of illegitimate 114-8. The infant
mortality rate for London was 65.
The number of infants dying under 1 year was 91, an increase of 10 on
the figure of last year and as the total number of births shows a decrease
of 157, the infantile mortality rate shows an increase of 15-9 on the
figures of 1930. The chief contributory causes of death were bronchopneumonia,
prematurity and gastro-enteritis. Twenty-four of the 27
premature deaths occurred before the fourth week of life.
Stomach and bowel complaints accounted for 16 deaths, 13 of the
infants being under six months old.