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
Wandsworth 1920
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Wandsworth, Metropolitan Borough]
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15
Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
The Infantile Mortality for the year is under that in 1919,
and is the lowest infantile mortality ever recorded in the Borough.
The following Table shows the percentage of deaths at different
age periods to the total infantile mortality for the year and
for the five previous years. It will be noted that there has been
a large increase in the percentage under four weeks compared
with the five years' average, and a slight increase at three to six
months, while at the other age periods the rate was lower.
The Chart shows the Infantile Mortality since 1858, and it
will be seen that there has been a very great lessening of the
mortality.
| 1915 | 1916 | 1917 | 1918 | 1919 | Five years' average. | 1920 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rate per 1,000 births | 92 | 78 | 89 | 89 | 66 | 83 | 64 |
| Percentage of above:— | |||||||
| Under one week | 21.7 | 24.0 | 19.1 | 22.7 | 32.3 | 23.9 | 28.3 |
| 5.1 | 8.0 | 6.3 | 3.6 | 8.6 | 6.3 | 7.8 | |
| 2 and under 3 weeks | 3.7 | 3.4 | 4.3 | 3.8 | 7.5 | 4.5 | 6.9 |
| 3 and under 4 weeks ... | 4.4 | 4.1 | 3.8 | 2.6 | 3.9 | 3.7 | 5.0 |
| Under 4 weeks ...... | 34.9 | 39.5 | 33.5 | 32.6 | 52.3 | 38.5 | 48.0 |
| From 4 to13 weeks | 14.0 | 15.4 | 17.7 | 18.5 | 18.3 | 16.8 | 21.3 |
| From 3 to 6 months | 16.3 | 20.3 | 18.4 | 19.5 | 11.8 | 17.3 | 14.3 |
| From 6 to 9 months | 18.0 | 13.1 | 11.4 | 17.4 | 9.8 | 13.9 | 12.3 |
| From 9 to 12 months | 16.8 | 11.7 | 19.0 | 12.0 | 7.8 | 13.5 | 4.1 |
| Under 12 months | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 |
The Infantile Mortality among legitimate infants was 60 per
1,000 legitimate births, and among illegitimate infants 179 per
1,000 illegitimate births, or nearly three times as great,