[Report 1966] / Medical Officer of Health, St Helens County Borough.

  • St. Helens (Merseyside, England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1966
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1966] / Medical Officer of Health, St Helens County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    7/114 (page 5)
    TO THE MAYOR, ALDERMEN AND COUNCILLORS OF THE COUNTY BOROUGH OF ST. HELENS 5 Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen, I beg to submit the Report on the health of St. Helens for the year 1966. The following statement shows some of the principal statistical rates during the past five years. Birth rate per 1,000 of population Death rate per 1,000 of population Infant Mortality per 1,000 live births j Maternal Mortality per 1,000 total births ] Tuberculosis death rate per 1,000 of population . 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 18.3 17.7 17.0 17.6 17-1 11.8 12.4 10.3 12.2 12.9 22.2 26.9 21.2 19.0 25.9 1.0 2.5 1.08 0.0 0.0 0.11 0.07 0.11 0.07 0.08 There were 1,774 live births during 1966 as against 1,846 in 1965, giving , a birth rate of 17.1 per 1,000 population. This was lower than the figure of 17.6 i per 1,000 for 1965, and I think was undoubtedly due to the younger married j couples leaving the town to live in overspill private and municipal housing j schemes in the County. With the possibility of the release of land for building in the southern area of the town, where extensive private development is now proceeding, this factor may right itself in succeeding years. Of all births during the year, 79 % took place in institutions, the balance of 21 % being domiciliary. The infant mortality rate of 25.9 per 1,000 live births contrasts rather ! unfavourably with the figure of 19.0 per 1,000 in 1965. This latter figure had been the lowest ever recorded in the County Borough, and while the contrast 1 would at first appear to be disappointing, in fact practically one-sixth of the ; deaths in 1966 occurred in one month. The causal factors were deaths from prematurity and the occurrence of a number of cases of broncho-pneumonia of a fulminating type. This fortuitous occurrence of an unusually larger number of infant deaths in one month undoubtedly produced this rather high \ figure. There were no maternal deaths during the year. There were 1,334 deaths during 1966, compared with 1,277 in 1965 giving a death rate of 12.9 per 1,000 population. The above table shows the s relationship with previous years, and evinces no marked change. There was :i no indication that there was any significant shift in the usual distribution of, & categories of death. As regards infectious diseases, there were no cases of diphtheria or poliomyelitis during the year, nor indeed any incidence of the major epidemic diseases. There was, it is true, a sharp outbreak of influenza during the early part of the year, but this was mild in nature and caused most incapacity in i the younger age-groups.