London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Walthamstow 1910

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Walthamstow]

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17
This is the last year such a discrepancy will be possible, a notification
having been given that in future the Registrar-General will supply the
necessary missing numbers to make our birth and death statistics
correct.
The classification of the causes of death must also be accepted with
some reserve.
"It is difficult to bring medical men to realise the unreliability of the
data which they themselves supply. All mortality statistics are based
on the death certificate, and non medical statisticians generally regard
the death certificate as of fixed interpretation. As a matter of fact,
however, medical men seldom write a death certificate with any appreciation
of its utility as a contribution to vital statistics."
Seldom is a distinction made in the death certificates between Acute
and Chronic Bronchitis, Lobar or Lobular Pneumonia, and deaths at 66
years of age from Senile Decay are quite frequent, and when three
distinct diseases—any of which might be the cause of death—are registered,
it is a matter of great difficulty to decide under which heading
the death should be placed.
The total deaths ascertained for the year were 1,186—males 602,
females 584—and all with the exception of an infant under 1 week were
certified by a doctor or the coroner. The registered cause of the
uncertified death was given as " Patent Foramen Ovale."
The deaths represent a crude death rate of 8.4 or a corrected rate for
differences of age and sex in the population as compared with the whole
country of 8.9 per 1,000 of the estimated population.
This death-rate is of course based on the assumption, that, like other
large towns, our rate of growth has been what the Registrar-General
assumes, and " missing deaths " are not included.
The death-rate for England and Wales was 13.4 and for the 77
"Great Towns " 14.3.
The death-rate for the 136 " Smaller Towns " was 12.9 and excluding
these and the "Great Towns" the rate for the country was 12.8.
If my estimate of the population is correct and making due allowance
for missing deaths, our death-rate would be 9.7 per 1,000, or 3.4 less
than the mortality figure for England and Wales, and 4.3 less than that
of the " Great Towns."
The birth, death, and infantile mortality rates of the following
districts of the outer zone of London, compared with your own,
will be of interest.
B