London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Barking 1920

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Barking]

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32
The correlation between father or mother and child for
Phthisis r=.5, the same as for eye colour, etc., and for members
of the same sibship (that is brother and sister), it is about .25 in
each case. These refer to completed life histories, but the same
is found amongst children. The following data bearing on this
point was collected in the area. It refers to the association of
lethal tuberculosis in the family and existence of recognisable
Pulmonary Tuberculosis in a child under 14 years, the child being
in school attendance and examined once only by the School Medical
Officer.

School Children.

No Recognisable DiseaseWith Recognisable DiseaseTotal
No family history2,048322,080
Father or mother having died or likely to die of phthisis25725 (6)282
Totals2,305572,362
r= .42+01

As a matter of chance we would have expected to find six
infected children of tainted stock. In actual fact we have 25—
that is four times as many. There is, of course, some error in
these figures, but it is of the nature calculated to reduce the value
of the association and not to increase it.
Taking now brother and sister, where the infection factor
must be as strong as the foregoing, we have from the Dispensary
population (this includes five years' records and is not identical
with above):—