London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Croydon 1936
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Croydon]
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30
1936 showed an increase in the general death-rate, a slight
decrease in the birth-rate and a still further decline in the infant
mortality rate, which reached the lowest yet recorded in Croydon.
Taking diseases of bodily systems and group diseases to which deaths were definitely assigned by the Registrar General, we find:—
| per 1,000 population. | ||
|---|---|---|
| Circulatory System (including Atheroma and Cerebral Haemorrhage) | 969 | or 4.01 |
| Cancer | 428 | 1.78 |
| Respiratory System (not Tubercular) | 252 | 1.04 |
| Tuberculosis (all forms) | 151 | 0.62 |
| Diseases of the Digestive System (excluding Cancer and Tuberculosis) | 147 | 0.61 |
| Diseases of the Nervous System (not Tubercular) | 95 | 0.39 |
| Diseases of Renal System | 89 | 0.37 |
| Infectious Diseases (excluding Tuberculosis but including Influenza) | 91 | 0.37 |
| Suicides and Violent Deaths | 114 | 0.47 |
| Old Age | 23 | 0.95 |
| Congenital Debility, Prematurity and Malformation | 63 | 0.26 |
The greatest single group of causes of death as in 1935 was
diseases of the Circulatory system, and of this group Organic Heart
disease was the most prominent member (749 deaths). Rheumatism
in childhood is indubitably a cause of cardiac breakdown latrte
in life, more particularly if the original attack of rheumatism tobeen
overlooked or disregarded.
Arterio-sclerosis (250 deaths) is the second big cause of death
in this group. This is a thickening and diminution in the elasticity
of the walls of the arteries and is an expression either of prolonged
stress or unwise living. Cerebral Haemorrhage, which caused,
incidentally, 69 deaths, is one of the sequelae of Arterio-sclerosis
combined with excessive blood pressure. Arterio-sclerosis and
Cerebral Haemorrhage between them caused 319 deaths.