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It will be seen that 37 were 75 and over and of all the
deaths attributed to heart disease 71, or 77 per cent., occurred
in persons of 60 and over. Ten of the 37 deaths over 75 were
85 or over, and 5 of them 90 or over. It is a cruel trick of
fate having lived to 90 years of age to be stricken down with
heart disease. Surely senility would be a truer description of
the cause of these deaths; and it would have the advantage
of presenting a more accurate picture of the disease. In view
of the importance of increasing our knowledge of Rheumatism,
an acute form of which is regarded as the commonest cause of
heart disease, this question assumes even greater importance
lest it be argued that heart disease, being the commonest cause
of death and acute Rheumatism being the commonest cause of
heart disease, acute Rheumatism is the commonest disease.
Another interesting point to be seen in this analysis is
that only 21 or 23 per cent, of deaths from heart disease
occurred under 60 and that the two biggest groupings are 13
between 60-65 and 17 between 75-80. While deductions must
be made with the greatest hesitation from such small numbers
as this and locally compiled, it would seem that further study
on a larger scale might well be valuable.
The other causes responsible for the greater proportion of
deaths are in order—Cancer, Intercranial Vascular Lesions and
Tuberculosis.
Reference to the Table on page 17 shows that the death
rate from Cancer remains, as last year, at the highest level
for ten years at 1.7 per 1,000 population. There were actually
116 deaths in 1945 as against 107 in 1944, the increase in the
population figure is responsible for the unaltered rate.
There were 45 deaths from Tuberculosis in 1945 as against
37 last year, the rate per 1,000 population being 0.68 as against
0.58 for the previous year.
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