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
London County Council 1913
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
This page requires JavaScript
48
Annual Report of the London County Council, 1913.
In classifying the returns of notifications received from the borough councils for the purpose of
this summary, care has been taken to follow as far as possible the International List of Causes of Death,
adopted by the Registrar-General in 1911 ; and the notifications should therefore be comparable with
the death in London from "pulmonary," and from "other tuberculosis," respectively.
Assuming the total number of notifications received in 1913 to afford a fair criterion of the ageincidence
of the disease, general comparison may reasonably be made of this incidence with the agedistribution
of the London deaths, say, in 1911 and 1912; there is, in the light of past experience,
no reason for thinking that the age-distribution of the deaths in so large a population varies in any
great degree from year to year. Since, however, the female population outnumbers the male at all
ages except infancy, the figures must first be adjusted to allow for the varying excess of females in
order to enable a comparison to be made of the age incidence of attack and death in the two sexes.
This correction having been made, the incidence of attack and mortality per 1,000 cases and deaths at all ages, is as follows :—
| Age-group. | Pulmonary Tuberculosis. | Other Tuberculosis. | All Tuberculosis. | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cases. | Deaths. | Cases. | Deaths. | Cases. | Deaths. | |||||||
| M. | F. | M. | F. | M. | F. | M. | F. | M. | F. | M. | F. | |
| 0— | 20 | 27 | 30 | 45 | 208 | 188 | 545 | 568 | 64 | 67 | 117 | 167 |
| 5— | 63 | 85 | 9 | 17 | 288 | 270 | 120 | 151 | 116 | 132 | 28 | 49 |
| 10— | 53 | 77 | 9 | 34 | 186 | 200 | 74 | 49 | 84 | 108 | 19 | 37 |
| 15— | 60 | 81 | 34 | 73 | 88 | 94 | 50 | 48 | 67 | 84 | 37 | 67 |
| 20— | 102 | 120 | 82 | 97 | 54 | 74 | 33 | 27 | 91 | 108 | 74 | 80 |
| 25— | 216 | 245 | 202 | 220 | 73 | 85 | 52 | 41 | 182 | 205 | 177 | 178 |
| 35— | 222 | 185 | 240 | 227 | 53 | 39 | 35 | 37 | 183 | 148 | 205 | 183 |
| 45— | 157 | 109 | 193 | 151 | 25 | 28 | 38 | 24 | 126 | 89 | 167 | 122 |
| 55— | 80 | 49 | 130 | 80 | 14 | 12 | 28 | 19 | 64 | 40 | 113 | 66 |
| 65+ | 27 | 22 | 71 | 56 | 11 | 10 | 25 | 36 | 23 | 19 | 63 | 51 |
| All ages | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 |
It will be seen that of 1,000 cases of pulmonary tuberculosis at all ages, 298 occur at ages below
25 years among males while among females there would be 390 cases ; and similarly of 1,000 deaths at
all ages, among males 164 would be under 25 years of age as against 266 among females. There is
no corresponding divergence in age-incidence observable in "other tuberculosis."
The males attacked at all ages exceed the females by 37 per cent, and the deaths by 86 per
cent. The lower death-rate for phthisis among females is thus due both to less susceptibility to definite
attack and to a greater power of resisting the inroads of the disease when established.
While the above table serves to show the difference in age-distribution of 1,000 cases and deaths in the two sexes throughout life, the following table gives the relative incidence of disease and death on the two sexes at each age-period :—
| Age-group. | Pulmonary tuberculosis among females. (Males=100) | Other tuberculosis among females. (Males=100). | All tuberculosis among females. (Males — 100). | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cases. | Deaths. | Cases. | Deaths. | Cases. | Deaths. | ||
| 0— | 96 | 81 | 72 | 84 | 78 | 83 | |
| 5— | 98 | 99 | 75 | 102 | 85 | 101 | |
| 10— | 107 | 213 | 85 | 53 | 96 | 112 | |
| 15— | 98 | 104 | 85 | 77 | 94 | 106 | |
| 20— | 86 | 63 | 109 | 64 | 89 | 63 | |
| 25— | 83 | 58 | 92 | 64 | 84 | 59 | |
| 35— | 61 | 51 | 59 | 87 | 61 | 52 | |
| 45— | 51 | 42 | 91 | 52 | 53 | 42 | |
| 55— | 45 | 33 | 67 | 55 | 46 | 34 | |
| 65+ | 59 | 42 | 77 | 115 | 61 | 47 | |
| All ages | 73 | 54 | 80 | 81 | 75 | 58 | |
The only age at which the case-rate of pulmonary tuberculosis among females exceeds that
among males is between 10 and 15 years, the excess being, however, only 7 per cent. The deaths
among females at this age, however, exceed the male deaths by 113 per cent. The abnormally high
fatality among females at this age cannot be entirely accounted for by the increased incidence of disease;
it may perhaps be due to a want of power to resist the progress of the disease. It has been suggested