[Report 1938] / Medical Officer of Health, Fife County Council.

  • Fife (Scotland). County Council.
Date:
1938
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1938] / Medical Officer of Health, Fife County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    6/184 (page 6)
    Infantile Mortality Rate. Maternal Mortality Rate: 1,198 deaths occurred in the Small Burghs, equivalent to a death rate of 12 per thousand of population and 1,078 occurred in the Land- ward Area, equivalent to a death rate of 10-6 per thousand of popula- tion. The number of deaths among infants under one year of age was 186, representing an infantile mortality rate of 54. This rate is the lowest ever recorded and reflects favourably on the work of all those asso- ciated in the supervision of the health of mothers and infants. The corresponding rate for Scotland was 70. In the Small Burghs 89 infants died and in the Landward Area 97 infants died, the respective rates being 55*7 and 53*3 per 1,000 births. A notable reduction in the number of deaths in the Landward part of the County had therefore occurred. The Scottish Maternal Mortality Rate for the year was 4-9 per 1,000 births. In Fife, the Rate was 3*8 per 1,000 births. The fact is worthy of comment in that for the first time the County rate was less than the national rate. An even more notable feature attends the marked reduction which took place in the rate for the Landward Area as com- pared with that for the Small Burghs. In the former, the rate was 1-65 (3 deaths) per 1,000 births ; in the latter it was 6-26 (10 deaths) per 1,000 births. Hitherto, the landward rate has been considerably in excess of the burghal rate. The gradual decrease which has occurred in recent years in the number of maternal deaths in the County culminating in the unprece- dented achievement of 1938 is highly satisfactory and may perhaps be related to the system under which maternal deaths are individually investigated although undoubtedly sulphonamide medication has been an important life-saving factor.