Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Epidemiological Association © The Author 2007; all rights reserved.
Uses of epidemiology
Social Medicine Research Unit, Medical Research Council.
Accepted 7 September 2007
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Until 
1900 death rates in middle age were high and worsening (Figure 1a), but about the turn of the century sanitary reform began to show results in this age group. Mortality rates for both men and women began to fall, and they continued to fall fairly sharply until the 1920s. Then something happened. Female mortality maintained its downward course; but the reduction of male mortality slackened and almost stopped. One result of this is that death rates for these men, which were 10% higher than for women a hundred years ago, and 33% higher after the First World War, are now 90% higher. What happened? As we now know, many strange things were happening, and are reflected, in the vital statistics of the inter-war years. The most important was the emergence from obscurity of three diseases, particularly affecting males, and very common in middle age: duodenal ulcer, cancer
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Historical |
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History in the making
Looking ahead
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Community diagnosis |
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The individual's chances |
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Operational research
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Completing the clinical picture |
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Identification of syndromes |
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Clues to causes |
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Conclusion |
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Summary |
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