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REPORT
of the Medical Officer of Health
for the year 1960
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have much pleasure in presenting to you the Annual Report on
the health of Wandsworth for the year 1960. The Report follows the
usual form, being mainly statistical with comments on some points
of interest.
The population of the borough has been trending slowly upwards
but 1960 saw the trend halted, for the population remained unchanged
at 338,800.
The crude birth rate was 16.3 per 1,000 persons living, an increase
over the previous year. After taking into account the area comparability
factor supplied by the Registrar General, the adjusted rate
works out at 15.6 compared with 15.0 for 1959. The rate for England
and Wales as a whole was 17.1 and for London 17.8. The crude death
rate for the year was 14.7 compared with 14.8 for 1959 but the
adjusted rate works out at 10.8, a slight increase over the previous
year. The corresponding rates for England and Wales and London
were 11.5 and 11.4 respectively.
In 1960 there was an increase in the deaths of infants under one
year and the infant mortality rate rose to 22.7 per thousand live
births compared with 19.5 for the previous year. As I have mentioned
in previous Reports, when these rates are reduced to comparatively
low figures, chance fluctuations from year to year over a comparatively
small area are bound to influence the rates one way or another.
It is the over-all decline over the years which is important. Nevertheless,
one cannot but regard this temporary set-back with anything
but disappointment and below I deal a little more fully with this
important subject.
To offset this disappointment, only one death from accidents or
disease of pregnancy occurred in 1960, as against three for 1959, the
corresponding rates being 0.1 per 1,000 live and still births, compared
with 0.5.