[Report 1968] / Medical Officer of Health, Bournemouth County Borough.

  • Bournemouth (England). County Borough Council. nb2004301338.
Date:
1968
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1968] / Medical Officer of Health, Bournemouth County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    DEATHS FROM PRINCIPAL CAUSES, 1968 Deaths during 1968 totalled 2,731, an increase of 207 on the number recorded in 1967, and the adjusted death rate rose from 10-10 to 11*0 per 1,000 population. The age distribution of all deaths was as follows :— Age % age 75 + 56-6 65-75 25-4 55-65 1H 45-55 3-6 35-45 1-2 25-35 0-4 15-25 0-5 0-15 1*2 100-0 Before commenting on the different causes of death, it should be noted that in 1968 the Registrar-General adopted a new classification of causes of death, rather more detailed and grouped in a slightly different way, so that direct comparisons with previous years are not easy. The statistics do, however, show that the main causes of death remain broadly unchanged, as follows :— Cause Of death Number of deaths Heart disease .. .. .. .. .. 960 Diseases of the arteries and circulatory system 558 Malignant disease (including leukaemia) .. 521 Diseases of the lungs (excluding tuberculosis) 333 Deaths from violence .. .. .. .. 61 Hypertensive disease .. .. .. .. 45 Included among the 960 deaths from heart disease were 775 cases of ischaemic heart disease, and the majority terminated in a fatal attack of coronary thrombosis. While most of these were in elderly people, there were 29 cases below the age of 55 years and six cases below the age of 45 years, and it would seem that the age incidence of ischaemic heart disease may be falling. A great deal of research is currently being undertaken into the cause of coronary artery disease and it would seem that some of the products of our affluent society — overweight, lack of exercise and a diet containing an excess of sugar and/or animal fats — may be responsible. Much the same remarks apply to causes of arterial and hyper- tensive disease where degenerative changes once associated pre- dominantly with old age, appear to be now involving lower age groups.
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