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
Harrow 1955
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Harrow]
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death rates of the sexes are not the same. To offset the effects of these
variations and so produce a rate which can be compared with that of
other districts, or that of the same district at other times, the RegistrarGeneral
calculates a comparative mortality index based on the 1951
census population. When the death rate figure is multiplied by this,
a figure is obtained which would have been the death rate for the district
had the age and sex distribution of the population been that of the
country as a whole in 1951. The index figure is 1.14; the adjusted rate
is 10.1, a figure well below that of 11.7 for the country as a whole.
The following is the Registrar-General's abridged list of causes of death in this district:—
| Male. | Female | Male. | Female | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resp. tuberculosis | 8 | 5 | Hypertension | 22 | 29 |
| Other tuberculosis | 0 | 1 | Other heart disease | 88 | 153 |
| Syphilitic disease | 2 | 0 | Other circulatory disease | 56 | 64 |
| Diphtheria | 0 | 0 | Influenza | 5 | 4 |
| Whooping cough | 0 | 0 | Pneumonia | 36 | 51 |
| Meningococcal infections | 1 | 1 | Bronchitis | 69 | 31 |
| Acute poliomyelitis | 1 | 3 | Other respiratory disease | 9 | 6 |
| Measles | 0 | 0 | Peptic ulcer | 11 | 9 |
| Other infective diseases | 2 | 1 | Gastritis, Enteritis | 1 | 4 |
| Cancer of stomach | 23 | 31 | Nephritis | 4 | 7 |
| Cancer of lung | 79 | 17 | Hyperplasia of prostate | 9 | 0 |
| Cancer of breast | 0 | 43 | Pregnancy, etc. | 0 | 1 |
| Cancer of uterus | 0 | 10 | Congenital malformation | 14 | 6 |
| Cancer of other sites | 110 | 100 | Other diseases | 74 | 80 |
| Leukaemia | 8 | 5 | Motor vehicle accidents | 13 | 3 |
| Diabetes | 2 | 4 | Other accidents | 10 | 11 |
| Vascular diseases of nervous system | 89 | 156 | Suicide | 14 | 8 |
| Homicide | 2 | 0 | |||
| Coronary disease | 199 | 140 |
1,399 deaths were due to diseases of the circulatory system, vascular
diseases of the central nervous system and to cancer, a percentage of 72
of the total deaths.
The following table shows for each sex the percentage of deaths in different age groups of those in this district for last year and for the country as a whole for 1954.
| Local, 1954 | England and Wales, 1954 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M. | F. | M. | F. | |
| Under 1 | 3.3 | 1.5 | 3.7 | 3.0 |
| 1— 4 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.4 |
| 4—15 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.4 |
| 15—25 | 1.2 | 0.7 | 1.0 | 0.6 |
| 25—35 | 1.4 | 1.1 | 1.6 | 1.4 |
| 35—45 | 2.6 | 2.9 | 3.1 | 2.8 |
| 45—55 | 11.4 | 7.1 | 9.1 | 6.3 |
| 55—65 | 21.4 | 12.2 | 17.7 | 12.5 |
| 65—75 | 27.5 | 21.1 | 28.3 | 25.6 |
| 75—85 | 22.1 | 34.1 | 27.0 | 33.3 |
| Over 85 | 8.2 | 17.5 | 7.4 | 12.7 |