[Report 1968] / Medical Officer of Health, Preston (Union) R.D.C.

  • Preston (Lancashire, England). Rural District Council.
Date:
1968
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1968] / Medical Officer of Health, Preston (Union) R.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Year 1959 . 233 Year 1964 . 322 5? 1960 . 212 99 1965 . 369 1961 . 257 99 1966 . 365 1962 . 294 99 1967 . 376 1963 . 264 99 1968 . 324 Illegitimate Live Births. The number of births of illegitimate children belonging to the Rural District and recognised during 1968 compared with that of every other year of the last decade is shown below: Year 1959 . 16 Year 1964 . 28 99 1960 . 18 99 1965 . 26 99 1961 . 17 99 1966 . 27 5» 1962 . 19 1967 . 41 1963 . 20 99 1968 . 33 DEATHS. The net deaths actually belonging to the Preston Rural District for the year 1968 numbered 629 (males 306, females 323). This total includes deaths of persons belonging to the Rural District who died outside the district, and of persons who died in the Whittingham Hospital and Ribchester Institution irrespective of their home address. The death-rate for the Rural District calculated on a home population of 50,280 is 12.5 per 1,000. Last year the death-rate was 12.8. The average death-rate for the five years 1963-1967 was 13.9. The Registrar-General has supplied a comparability factor for adjusting local death-rates. This factor takes into account the varying population constitution, including sex and age distribution, to make every district comparative from the mortality point of view with the crude death-rate of the country as a whole, or with similarly adjusted death-rates for other areas. The adjusted death-rate using the comparability factor is 11.4 per 1,000, as against last year’s adjusted rate of 10.2. The death-rate for the whole of England and Wales in 1968 was 12.5 per 1,000 home population. PRINCIPAL CAUSES OF DEATH. Approximately 70 per cent, of all deaths each year are classified to causes falling within three main groups—heart disease, cancer and vascular lesions of the nervous system. The relative importance of these and of other principal causes of death in 1968 is shown in the following table: No. of Percentage of Cause of Death deaths total deaths Heart disease (all forms). 254 (228) ... ... 40.5 (36.0) Vascular lesions of nervous system . Cancer (including Hodgkin’s disease, 79 (102) ... ... 12.7 (16.0) leukaemia and aleukaemia). 107 (106) ... ... 16.7 (16.6) Pneumonia, Bronchitis and Influenza . 66 (71) ... ... 10.5 (11.2) Other circulatory disease. Violence (including all Accidents, Suicide and 27 (23) ... 4.3 (3.6) Homicide) . 31 (32) .. .... 4.8 (5.0) The figures in brackets show the number of deaths for 1967. Compared with 1967 there are two changes: a decline in the number of deaths attributable to vascular lesions of the nervous system and an increase in deaths from all forms of heart disease. In the following paragraphs further details are given of the chief causes of death.