Deaths

• Improved nutrition


  • Accounts for up to 1/2 the reduction in death rates
  • Better nutrition increases resistance to infection, and therefore, survival
• McKeown (1972) argues that improved nutrition accounts for up to 1/2 the reduction in death rates
• Improved nutrition


  Women get smaller portions but live longer than males
• Improved nutrition


  Many died from infectious diseases like the measles
• Death rate


  Number of deaths per 1,000 of the population per year
• The death rate has fallen since 1870, despite periods of economic depression and war, and has been declining slightly since 1950
• Life expectancy


  How long on average a person born in a given year can expect to live
• Life expectancy has greatly increased since 1900
• In 1900, males lived to 50 and females lived to 57, while in 2013 it was 90.7 for males and 94 for females
• One reason for low life expectancy before was because of a high infant mortality rate
• If greater longevity continues, we'll have radical longevity with more people aged over 100, 1M by year 2300 compared to around 10K now
• Medical improvements


  • Improved medical knowledge, techniques and organisation helped reduce death rates after 1950
  • 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
• The greatest fall in recent decades isn't medical advancement, but simply from a reduction in people smoking
• Obesity has replaced smoking in the 21st century as the new lifestyle epidemic, with % of all adults being obese in 2012
• Even though obesity has risen, drug therapies have kept deaths from it low
• We're moving to an 'American' health culture where lifestyles are unhealthy, but medications keep the lifespan long
• Class, gender and regional factors

  Even with an overall reduction in death rates and increase in life expectancy, there are still class, gender and regional differences
• People living in the poorest areas of England die on average 7 years earlier than those in richest areas, while the average difference in disability-free life expectancy is 17 years
• Women generally live longer than men though the gap has narrowed due to changes in employment and lifestyle (like more women smoking)
• Those living in the North and Scotland have a lower life expectancy than those in the South, while working-class men in unskilled/routine jobs are 3x as likely to die before 65 compared to men in managerial/professional jobs
• Public health measures


  • More central/local government with the power to pass/enforce laws led to improvements in public health and quality of the environment
  • This included improved housing, purer drinking water, laws to combat food/drink adulteration, pasteurisation of milk, and improved sewage disposal
  • The Clean Air Act reduced air pollution, like the smog that led to 4,000 deaths in 5 days in 1952
• Demography


  • Reasons for the fall in the death rate
  • Up to 1970, about three-quarters of the decline was due to a fall in deaths from infectious diseases
  • This decline was largely brought about by changing social factors, including improved nutrition, medical improvements, and public health improvements