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33
INFANTILE MORTALITY.
The infantile mortality rate of any district is the number of deaths of infants
under one year of age per 1,000 of the births which occurred in the same year.
The number of babies under one year who died in St. Marylebone in 1924 was
123, and the number of births in that year 1,531. The infantile mortality rate is
therefore 78, which is somewhat above that for 1923 (66 per 1,000).
The course which the rate has taken is graphically shown in the chart on
page 35, which indicates clearly that in spite of occasional variations the only really
serious interruption to the decline was in 1917.
The means adopted in the Borough with a view to bringing about a reduction
in infantile mortality and generally improving the life and health chances of
infants and children are described in a separate section of this report—Maternity
and Child Welfare. This part being merely statistical, it is not proposed at this
point to do more than give some sort of analysis of the figures relating to deaths
amongst infants.
Causes.—A Table (Ministry of Health Table 1) will be found on page 34^
in which, in addition to the causes of death, is shown the distribution of the
deaths according to age and locality.
So far as age and causation are concerned, conditions vary little year by
year. In 1924, as in other years, the greatest number of deaths occurred in the
early weeks of life. Of the babies, 47 were less than one month old when they
died, and 69 less than three months. The figures for 1923 were 50 and 72.
The outstanding causes of death and the proportions traceable to them were
those usually noted. Prematurity (numbers 12, 13 and 14 in the table), which as
usual heads the list, caused 43 deaths, the same as the figure for the year 1923.
Diarrhoea and enteritis (7 and 8) accounted for 13 in 1923, and for 18 in 1924.
Respiratory diseases, the third of the main causes, took 19 in 1923, and in 1924
31.
The commoner infectious diseases together led to 7 deaths among infants,
the particular disease being in each case measles. Two deaths were stated
to be due to overlaying, 4 to tuberculosis, 2 to convulsions, and 2 to meningitis.
In the following table information supplementary to that in the large table
is given with regard to deaths in the various sub-districts.
Christ Church, which always contributes most largely to the infantile as to
most of the other mortality rates, being the most thickly populated area and
that in which there is most poverty, most overcrowding and most neglect of
ordinary precautions, is again at the head of the list with 55 deaths amongst
infants. In 1923 the figure was 52.
Sub-District.
Under 1 week.
1 and under 2
weeks.
2 and under 3
weeks.
3 and under 4
weeks.
4 weeks and under
3 months.
3 and under
6 months.
6 and under
9 months.
9 and under
12 months.
Totals.
All Souls 3 1 2 1 3 7 2 3 22
St. Mary 10 1 — — 7 5 2 5 30
Christ Church 15 2 2 2 6 11 11 6 55
St. John 5 — 2 1 4 1 3 — 16
Totals 33 4 6 4 20 24 18 14 123
The births are the net numbers registered in the calendar year. The rate per 1,000 births is
based on deaths in the 53 weeks, and has therefore been adjusted for that period.