[Report 1929] / Medical Officer of Health, Salop / Shropshire County Council.

  • Shropshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1929
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1929] / Medical Officer of Health, Salop / Shropshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    15/68 (page 7)
    The following table shows the position with regard to the chief matters referred to for each five-year period from 1901 to 1925, each subsequent year being given separately :— Periods. Birth-rate. Death-rate. Infant Mortality Rate per 1,000 Births. Death-rates from Phthisis. Death-rates from Cancer. 1901—1905 26.34 15.2 102 .938 1.025 1906—1910 — 23.98 14.64 92 .948 1.093 1911—1915 21.21 13.832 82 .804 1.156 1916—1920 19.162 14.554 71 .808 1.382 1921—1925 19.716 12.488 60 .614 1.374 1926 18.27 11.98 54 .563 1.476 1927 17.06 12.77 48 .528 1.645 1928 16.8 12.0 58 .517 1.554 1929 16.89 13.79 65 .604 1.583 INFANT MORTALITY. There were 4,118 births during 1929, only three less than in the previous year, There were, however, 270 deaths of children under one year of age as opposed to 239 in 1928, an increase of 31. This gives an infant mortality rate of 65 per thousand births, a rise of 9 per thousand as compared with 1928. This compares quite favourably, however, with the infant mortality rate for England and Wales, which was 74 per thousand births, a rise also of 9 per thousand over the figure for the previous year. Amongst illegitimate children the infant mortality rate was 96.2, being, as usual, much higher than that for the legitimate, for whom it was 63- The figures are as follows :— All Infants. Total. Male. Female. Infant Mortality Rates. (1927) 200 (Legitimate i Illegitimate . . •• 175 25 104 16 7i 9 44-7 94.0 ' 47-86 (1928) 239 (Legitimate (Illegitimate 220 19 123 io 97 9 57-i 70.1 ; 58 (1929) 270 j Legitimate 242 86 63 ] 65 lIllegitimate 28 i5 13 96 The increase of 31 in the number of deaths of children under twelve months is more than accounted for by the increase in the mortality from influenza, pneumonia and congenital defects, from which 40 more deaths of children under one year took place. A considerable number of the cases of pneumonia were probably influenzal in origin, and it would probably be substantially true to state that the increase in the infant mortality rate was due to the prevalence of influenza during the year, notwithstanding the fact that there were 15 more deaths from congenital defect of one kind or another. As deaths from congenital defect account for 141 out of 270 deaths of infants under 12 months, it must, however, be recognised as the chief cause of the maintenance of the infant mortality. A congenital defect being an established fact at birth, must be prevented rather than cured, and it is to a reduction in the number of deaths due to other causes that we must look chiefly for a decrease in the infant mortality rate. No amount of attention by the midwife immediately after birth, and by the health visitor at a later date, can save a child born with a serious physical defect. Actually, but for these three conditions, namely, influenza, pneumonia and congenital defect, there would have been a considerable reduction in the infant mortality during the year.