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11
Death Rate
Crude Death Rate per 1,000 population 11.9
Adjusted Death Rate (area comparability factor 1.09) 13.0
Infant Mortality Rate per 1,000 live births 22.2
(legitimate 22.2; illegitimate 22.3)
Neo-natal Mortality Rate per 1,000 live births 15.0
(legitimate 15.4; illegitimate 12.9)
Early Neo-natal Mortality Rate per 1,000 live births 13.8
(legitimate 14.2; illegitimate 11.7)
Perinatal Mortality Rate per 1,000 live and still births 29.2
(legitimate 28.7; illegitimate 32.1)
Maternal Mortality Rate per 1,000 live and still births 0.7
When looking at the figures one must feel concerned about the relatively
high number of deaths of infants under one year of age. Of the 127 infants
under one year of age who died, 79 died within a week of birth and most of these
deaths were due to prematurity and congenital malformations. The death rate
of 13.8 for these babies, although higher than the figures for England and
Wales, does not differ materially from other London Boroughs. What does concern
me are the 48 deaths of babies who survived the first week but died within
a year of birth; most of the deaths being due to respiratory infections. It
will be seen from the table of rates that the infant mortality rate (deaths under one
year) is higher than for the neighbouring London Boroughs. The comparable
rates for Hackney in 1965 and 1964 respectively were 18.6 and 19.2 per thousand.
Though these fluctuations in the rates are to a large extent to be expected,
when the variables involved are taken into consideration it emphasises how very
necessary the Health Visiting service is, especially when one realises that it
is the only one that undertakes domiciliary visits to the total population under
five years of age and, therefore, has insight into child care in the individual
home.