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MORTALITY
General Mortality and Death Rate
The net number of deaths accredited to the district was 538.
seven less than in 1960. This gives a crude death rate of 11.3
per 1, 000 of the population and a corrected death rate of 10.6
(the rate for 1960 being 11.0).
I have already made mention in the introduction to this Report
of the established connection between smoking and health. This,
I need scarcely say, is reflected in the deaths from cancer of
the bronchus and lungs, bronchitis, coronary thrombosis and
psycho-somatic diseases such as gastric and duodenal ulcers. I
will say nothing more here relating to smoking and health since
this is a matter which has received very great publicity during
1962, and should be a matter for more detailed survey in the
Annual Report for that year.
So far as coronary thrombosis is concerned, diseases of the
heart and circulation still make up the largest single cause of
mortality in the Borough. Year after year I have made mention
of the fact that, although diseases such as coronary thrombosis
and lung cancer take an appalling toll of life, particularly the
lives of men at the height of their power, "epidemiology" as we
know the term is still closely linked with infectious illnesses.
This is not to say that, infectious illnesses should not receive
careful attention. That is certainly not the case. The fact
that most infectious diseases are now mild in nature, especially
such diseases as pertussis and scarlet fever, by no means implies
that this mildness will continue. None the less the sooner it
is realised that such diseases as heart disease call for much
more careful study, and until the causes of heart and similar
diseases are discovered and the appropriate remedies applied,
death rates will continue to be much higher than most of us
would like to see.
As I have remarked before, there are no conditions actually
existing within the Borough which one can point to as contributing
to cardiac disease. It is a fact, however, that Wood Green shares
with the rest of the country the strain of modern life, which is
clearly having an effect upon so many families. The journey which
so many of our residents have to take to and from London every
day, is presumably a factor which must be taken into account.
Finally Wood Green, as a built-up area, even by no means a
wholly congested area, leaves its population more vulnerable than
the population of rural areas, where the tempo and strain of life
are not so hectic, and where incidentally, a smoke-laden atmosphere
does not constitute a serious health hazard.
Altogether, although many explanations for the increase in
cardiac fatalities over the past few years have been advanced, and
although a great deal of research is going on in this and other
countries, the situation is still far from satisfactory. It is
perhaps unfortunate that, although we are continually being pressed
to carry out research and investigation the staff of such an area