20th century lifestyle and disease

• In the past, one of the most common ways that people died was through infectious diseases
• With better understanding of germ Theory and how infections are caused, greater action is taken to prevent it and so it's not the killer it once was
• More people have survived for longer, which has given the chance for lifestyle factors to have a greater role in their health
• Attitudes to things like smoking have changed dramatically because now we understand the impact of Lifestyle on how we are healthy or not
• Life expectancy


  A good indicator of General Health
• Life expectancy for men increased by 29 years and for women by 30 years throughout the 20th century
• The 1910s and 1940s show a dramatic drastic decrease in the life expectancy for men due to the first and second world wars
• During the 20th century, many more causes for illness and disease were identified, including smoking, poverty, drinking alcohol, lack of exercise, being overweight or underweight, and stress
• In 1911, heart disease was a minor contributor to deaths at 14.4%, but this rose massively to 45.1% in 1951 and is still reasonably high at 28% in 2011
• In 1911, cancer caused 6% of deaths, this rose to 16.2% in 1951 and 29% in 2011
• In 1911, over a quarter of deaths were down to infectious diseases, but this had reduced to only 4.3% by 1951 and 0.7% in 2011
• The massive rate of heart disease in the 1950s may be due to the prevalence of smoking in the years leading up to that
• As more people live longer, the risk of getting cancer increases, even though it is good news that they are living longer
• Widespread vaccination has led to infectious disease no longer being the biggest killer in developed countries
• Illness caused by lifestyle factors is now a leading cause of mortality in developed countries
• Governments have launched many prevention campaigns to try and prevent illnesses created by lifestyle choices
• Over 40,000 people are diagnosed with lung cancer each year in the UK, nearly 90% of which are the result of smoking or passive smoking
• Only 10% of those with lung cancer live for more than five years, compared to 50% for other cancers living for at least 10 years
• Treatments for lung cancer include immunotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery, and chemotherapy
• Medicine has improved rapidly during the 1900s, leading to the rapid growth in life expectancy
• Women's life expectancy has improved partly due to fewer younger women dying in childbirth
• As people age, they are more susceptible to lifestyle-related illnesses that have overtaken infectious disease as the biggest cause of death in the developed world
• Governments focus more attention on educating people about lifestyle choices and avoiding illness, as this saves money in socialized healthcare systems