[Report 1946] / Medical Officer of Health, Essex County Council.

  • Essex (England). County Council.
Date:
1946
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1946] / Medical Officer of Health, Essex County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    6/100 (page 6)
    The death-rate in the County in 1946 was 10.4 per 1,000 of the population. T is the lowest since the 1939 rate of 9.9, but like the birth-rates, the death-rates sii 1939 have been artificially swollen, even apart from war deaths, as they refer to 1 civilian population which has been bereft of a large section of its young and health members. No useful comparison can be made between the experience of the Corn, districts as the age distributions of their populations are not known and so standard! tion factors cannot be calculated. When we turn to Infant Mortality, we are on firmer ground as the Infant Mortal Rate is based on the number of live births, not on the total population. In 19'* there were 991 deaths of infants under one year of age giving an Infant Mortal Rate of 33 per 1,000 live births. This is the lowest rate ever experienced in the Couir the rates for the last eight years being—- 1938 • • 42 1942 37 1939 • • 36 1943 38 1940 • • 43 1944 38 1941 41 1945 39 The average for the war years was 38.8 per 1,000 and the drop from this figure equivalent to the saving of the lives of 172 infants during 1946. In trying to answer the question : “ Is this fall general throughout the County confined to one or two areas ? ”, we are hampered by the fluctuations always associat e. with small numbers. To lessen this difficulty, County Districts of similar type ha; f been combined so that no group of authorities has a population of less than 50,0( I he Infant Mortality Rates in these areas for 1946 and for 1939-45 are shown in t following Table :—- County Districts. Infant Mortality Rate. 1939-45. ^ 1946. Hornchurch 38 41 Chigwell, Chingford, Epping Urban District, Wan- stead and Woodford.. 34 28 Total dormitory group 36 34 Barking ci? • • •• •• •• 35 33 Dagenham 45 31 Ilford •• •• •• t • 35 30 Romford * • •• •• •• 40 42 Walthamstow • • • • • • 38 34 Leyton and Waltham Holy Cross 40 28 Total dormitory industrial group 39 32