[Report 1944] / Medical Officer of Health, Barnsley County Borough.

  • Barnsley (England : Unitary authority). County Borough Council.
Date:
1944
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1944] / Medical Officer of Health, Barnsley County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The low rate (as opposed to the total numbers) is caused by the fact that the Birth Rate has in the meantime greatly increased and that as a consequence there were 1,551 live births in Barnsley in 1944, compared with 1,359 in 1943, and 1,153 in 1937. This increase in the birth rate affects all sections of the community, including those of satisfactory economic status where, in any case, only a few infant deaths would normally be expected, for it is well known that the Infant Mortality rate is low amongst those sections of the community enjoying a relatively high standard of living. While this increase in the munber of births favours a low rate, this loading effect’ should not be over estimated. If it be assumed, for the sake of discussion, that half of the increased births for 1944 compared with 1943 (that is to say 96 ) occurred in good surroundings and that no death occurred amongst such babies, the Infant Mortality rate of the remainder would still be very low. Even allowing, therefore, for the ‘loading effect’ of the increased birth rate, it is still permissible to assume that factors were at work in Barnsley during the year that saved many infant lives. CAUSES OF INFANT DEATH. As a preliminary to a discussion of what these factors were, it will make it clearer if the causes of infant death in 1944 are briefly alluded to and, in order to bring out the comparisons with previous years I have, for the sake of convenience, extracted the figures for the years 1942 and 1943, in order that the trend may be more clearly followed. These figures are shown below. It should also be pointed out that statistics relating to a place of the size of Barnsley are not very well suited to satisfactory analysis as they are on the small side and, therefore, not large enough to absorb chance variations from one year to another. It is necessary to separate the neo-natal period (that is to say the number of deaths in the first month of life) from the period of one month to twelve months. There was a very big improvement in 1944 over 1943 but there are still 37 neo- natal deaths in 1944 as compared with only 32 in 1942. As regards neo-natal deaths, therefore, there was no real improvement in 1944 so that the benefits noted in that year must refer only to the period of one month to twelve months. Year 1942 1943 1944 Neo-natal 32 52 37 1-12 months 46 38 23 Totals 78 90 60 The following Table gives more information regarding the conditions resulting in death :— Year 1942 1943 1944 Prematurity Congenital Debility & Malformations... 16 15 ^3. 26 24 50 17 132 15 1 Bronchitis Pneumonia 5 20 25 9 23 32 4 119 15 [ Totals 56 82 51 The main causes of Infant Deaths are Prematurity, Congenital Debility and Malformations, and Respiratory Diseases (Bronchitis and Pneumonia) and, as 1 pointed out in my Report for 1942, any effort to reduce the Infant Mortality rate should concentrate mainly on these three causes.