[Report 1942] / School Medical Officer of Health, Bury County Borough.

  • Bury (Greater Manchester, England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1942
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1942] / School Medical Officer of Health, Bury County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/40 (page 10)
    THE IMPROVEMENT IN HEALTH AND DECLINE IN MORTALITY IN AN ENGLISH TOWN DURING THE LAST FIFTY YEARS. During llie last lialf-centiiry public health has greatly improved in tin's horougli. 'i'here is nothing more clear and unmistakeable than the gain in health of the population and in the progressive decrease in the annual number of deaths in the last llfty years. This period has been chosen since some a])preciable time must elapse before the full force and value of improved conditions of life are determined. The first Public Health Act came into being in 1848, but that Act contained largely experimental provisions, most i-uit forward in a tenta- tive fashion, and was rushed through Parliament to deal with the then urgent problem of a cholera ejndemic. Other Public Health Acts followed until the epoch-making I’ublic Health Act of 1875. This Act was more comprehensive and more stringent than its jiredecessors, and it still forms the basis of the Public Health system, although it has been largely repealed and re-enacted, with modifications, in the Public Health Act of 1936. The effects of an Act take lime to be apparent, so starting from the year 1893 we can observe to some extent what public health measures have accomplished in fifty years’ time. In that time the average life has been lengthened by twelve years and the standard of health has be'en raised. There has been a great saving in young lives, and the years of life saved are being lived chiefly at between the ages of fifteen and sixty-five, when, economically and socially, the}* have the highest value. As fair samples by which the returns in life and health from the nu)ney, time and labour si)ent upon public health can Ije measured, one can take the decennium 1893-190-2 and compare it with the ten year period 1933-42. The average annual number of deaths registered in this town in the first period numbered 1,119, over one-third occurred in children under five years of age. In the second period the average annual number of deaths was 852, and only one-thirteenth of this number was composed of deaths of children under five. This improvement cannot be said to be due .to a succession of seasons favouralfie to health in the recent decennium or to causes unconnected with the im])rovemem in sanitary conditions. It was no mere casual coincidence that the decline in mortality increased as public health measures came more and more into operation. There is little doubt that the saving of life was the direct product of the time, labour and money spent in sanitary improvements, and in the extension of the Public Health Services. 'I'he po])ulation of this town has not altered very much in size since the beginning of ihe fifty years period, so that in contrasting the two decennium the population remains as stable a common factor as is possible. Had the numl.>er of deaths remained in the second period at the same level as in the first, 2,490 persons would have died in 1933-42, who, as it was .survived, and this is allowing for the com])aratively high numl>er of births ami for the high mortaliU- under five in the 1893-1902 decennium. 10 f