falling death rates Flashcards
General trends
There has been a significant decline in mortality in the UK from around 1830 to present day - life expectancy has steadily increased
Generic responses to the fall in death rate:
- Medical advances such as xrays, vaccinations and life support machines
- improved sanitation
- improved housing and living conditions
- better health education and awareness of our diets - we are now aware of the specific vitamins and nutrients which are necessary to stay healthy
- decline in dangerous manufacturing jobs
Factors resulting in the fall in death rates: improved nutrition
Improved nutrition - has enabled individuals to tailor their diet to ensure they stay healthy
- also the introduced of governmental policies such as no salt on the tables in schools
- the smart swap idea - swapping unhealthy snacks and beverages for healthier options
- food traffic light schemes - making people aware of what they are consuming - allows them to identify the quantity of ingredients such as sat fat and salt
- additionally the increase in healthier diets and improved nutrition also results in an increased immunity to disease, resulting in people being less susceptible to diseases.
HOWEVER MCKEOWN disagrees and believes that we are not improving our diets and nutrition as we have increased the amount of fast food we eat resulting g in the rise of certain illnesses such as coronory heart disease, diabetes and obesity.
medical advances
MEDICAL ADVANCES
- around 60% of the decline in mortality from 1850 to 1970 was due to a decrease in infectious diseases.
SUPPORTED BY TRANTER - wgi stated that one of the main reasons for the decline in the death rate since 1850 is due to the decline in deaths from infectious diseases such as smallpox, TB, measles and typhoid.
- the introduction of antibiotics in the 1930s enabled doctors to treat infectious and therefore increase an individuals life expectancy.
- additionally the introduction of immunisations has enabled us to prevent the prevalence of disease.
- for example the measles, mumps and rubella immunisation provided to children prevents the occurrence of the diseases - significantly reducing the infant mortality rate.
- additionally, the increased ability to identify diseases and conditions has increased - for example through the ability to scan individuals with the use of xrays, CT scans and MRI scans enables us to identify any abnormalities and treat them before they may become life threatening - therefore reducing the death rate.
Welfare measures
National governments began to have more responsibility for the welfare of its citizens - resulted in improvements in the disposal of sewage, the removal of rubbish and the purification of water - PROVIDED A HEALTHIER ENVIRONMENT
- additionally governments made ‘free school meals’ compulsory in all schools for ‘the needy’ - this prevented malnourishment, reducing the likelihood of death.
Decline in ‘dangerous’ manufacturing jobs
There has been a reduction in the proportion of manufacturing jobs in the economy such as manual labour, including ship building, mining and engineering as a result of an increase in the automation of the economy.
- this has therefore resulted in a rise in sedentary jobs such as working in offices and banks - however although these jobs may not be as dangerous they do result in people being less active and susceptible to conditions such as RSI and deep vein thrombosis.
Smaller families
The reduction in family size as a result of a fall in the birth rate because of several contributing factors such as the fall in IMR, increased occupational and educational opportunities of women and the increase in child centredness has resulted in a smaller transmission of disease as a smaller family means that the transmission of the disease is reduced.
However, not many families in society today have the ability to kill a family as greatly as they would have in the past, such as the black death in comparison to the flu.
