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Causes of and ages at Death.—General information with regard to the deaths
which occurred in the Borough during the year, mainly as to causes and the ages
at which death took place, is given in Table III. of the Ministry of Health series
at page 74.
This same table gives the number of deaths from various specified causes
which occurred in institutions, in hospitals, nursing homes, etc. In each of the
groups all deaths, whether of residents or non-residents, are included, which
accounts for the fact that the total comes up to 1,005.
Fuller information than is possible in the table is given in the following pages,
in which also the figures relating both to causes of death and the ages at which
these causes were operative are analysed.
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 1932 was 92,
and the number of births in that year 1,055. The infantile mortality rate is therefore
87.
The means adopted in the Borough with a view to bringing about a reduction
and generally improving the life and health chances of infants and children are
described in a separate section of the 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 I.) will be found on page 44,
in which, in addition to the causes of death, are 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 1932, as in other years, the greatest number of deaths occurred in the early
weeks of life. Of the babies, 32 were less than one month old when they died and
46 less than three months. Having regard to the increase in the death-rate from
65 to 87, these figures are important and may be compared with the corresponding
figures for 1931, 18 and 29 respectively.
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 20 in 1931, and 33 in 1932. Diarrhœa and enteritis
(7 and 8) accounted for 11 in 1931 and 32 in 1932. Respiratory diseases took 24
in 1931 and only 5 in 1932.
Amongst the other causes of death, those which call for mention are the
commoner infectious diseases, which together led to (! deaths among infants,
whooping cough accounting for 5. No death was stated to be due to over-laying
and only 1 to meningitis and 1 to measles.
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 36 deaths amongst infants. In
1931 the figure was 26.