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 1958
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Harrow]
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including seven in nearby isolation hospitals, and 210 in various London
hospitals. Six deaths were of infants born in hospitals outside the district.
The total number of deaths was 1,992. The figure for 1957 was 1,937
and for 1956 was 1,903. The 2,094 of 1951 was the largest number of
deaths recorded for this district.
The death rate was 9·2 per thousand population. The rates for the
last five years were 8·7, 8·8, 8·2, 8·8 and 8·9. The rate for the country as a
whole was 11·7, a slight rise on the figure of the two previous years.
Liability to death varies at different ages. Any changes in the agedistribution
of a population then affect the death rate; similarly, the
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 Registrar-General
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 1·19; the adjusted rate is 11·1, 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 | 1 | 1 | Hypertension | 23 | 29 |
| Other tuberculosis | 0 | 0 | Other heart disease | 79 | 144 |
| Syphilitic disease | 4 | 1 | Other circulatory disease | 41 | 87 |
| Diphtheria | 0 | 0 | Influenza | 4 | 4 |
| Whooping Cough | 0 | 0 | Pneumonia | 33 | 45 |
| Meningococcal infections | 0 | 0 | Bronchitis | 68 | 39 |
| Acute poliomyelitis | 0 | 0 | Other respiratory disease | 12 | 4 |
| Measles | 1 | 0 | Peptic ulcer | 14 | 13 |
| Other infective diseases | 1 | 1 | Gastritis, Enteritis | 3 | 6 |
| Cancer of stomach | 37 | 17 | Nephritis | 9 | 4 |
| Cancer of lung | 71 | 11 | Hyperplasia of prostate | 8 | — |
| Cancer of breast | 0 | 53 | Pregnancy, etc. | 0 | 2 |
| Cancer of uterus | 0 | 18 | Congenital malformation | 6 | 7 |
| Cancer of other sites | 106 | 101 | Other diseases | 67 | 71 |
| Leukaemia | 8 | 11 | Motor vehicle accidents | 19 | 7 |
| Diabetes | 1 | 10 | Other accidents | 13 | 12 |
| ascular diseases of nervous system | 122 | 171 | Suicide | 8 | 10 |
| Homicide | 0 | 0 | |||
| Coronary disease | 214 | 134 | 979 | 1,013 |
1,445 deaths were due to diseases of the circulatory system, vascular
diseases of the central nervous system and to cancer, a percentage of
seventy-two of the total deaths.
The following are the numbers of persons who were of different ages
at the time of death: under one year, 48; over one but under five years,
5; live to fourteen years, 5; fifteen to twenty-four years, 20; twenty-five
to forty-four years, 68; forty-five to sixty-four years, 534, sixty-five to
seventy-four years, 488; seventy-five years and over, 851.