Deaths

• reasons for the decline in death rates

  • medical improvements
  • improved nutrition, hygiene and public health
  • social, economic and environmental factors
  • changing lifestyles
  • clean air act (1956)
  • introdution to antibiotics and immunisation
  • less dangerous careers and safety precautions
• improved nutrition - McKeown 1972

  • argues that improved nutrition accounts for up to 1/2 the reduction in death rates
  • better nutrition increases resistance to infection, and therefore increases rates of survival
  • McKeown does not explain why females who receive a smaller share of the family food supply lived longer than males
  • he fails to explain why deaths from some infectious diseases such as measles actually rose at a time of improving nutrition
• medical improvements

  • before 1950 medical improvements played no part in the reduction of deaths from infectious diseases
  • from the 1950s improved medical knowledge, techniques and organisation helped reduce death rates
  • Advances include blood transfusions, improved maternity services, and the NHS being set up in 1948
  • In recent times, by-pass surgeries have reduced heart diseased deaths by 1/3
• smoking and diet

  • according to Harper the greatest fall in death rates has not come from medical improvements but due to a reduction in the number of people smoking
  • in the 21st century obesity has replaced smoking as the new lifestyle epidemic
  • yet although obesity has risen deaths from obesity have been kept low as a result of drug therapies
  • Harper suggests that we may be moving to an American' health culture where lifestyles are unhealthy, but costly medications keep the lifespan long
• public health measures

  • in the 20th century more effective and more local government with the necessary power to pass and enforce laws led to a range of improvements in public health and the quality of the environment
  • included improvements in housing (less overcrowded), purer drinking water, improved sewage disposal methods
  • similarly the clean air act reduced air pollution reducing death rates
• other social changes

  • the decline in dangerous manual occupations such as mining
  • smaller families reduced the rate of transmission of infection
  • greater public knowledge of the causes of illness
  • lifestyle changes e.g. reduction of the number of people who smoke
  • higher incomes allowing for a healthier lifestyle
• life expectancy

  • life expectancy relates to how long on average a person born in a given year is expected to live
  • as death rates have fallen life expectancy has increased
  • one reason for lower average life expectancy in 1900 was the fact so many infants and children did not survive beyond the ears years of life
• class gender and regional differences

  • despite the overall reduction in the death rate and the increase in life expectancy over the last 100 years there are still important class, gender and regional differences
  • e.g. women generally live longer than men
  • according to Walker 2011 those living in the poorest areas in England die on average 7 years earlier than those in the richest area