Deaths

Question 1

Describe the death rate trend in the past

Answer 1

• In 1900, the death rate stood at 19, whereas by 2012 it had more than halved to 8.9
• The death rate began to fall from about 1870 and continued to fall until 1930. It rose slightly during the 1930s and 40s, the period of great economic depression and WWII, but since the 1950s it has declined slightly

Question 2

Explain the reason for the decline in death rate from 1850 to 1970

Answer 2

• Tranter argues, over 3/4s of the decline in the death rate in the years was due to fall in deaths from infectious diseases like measles, smallpox and tuberculosis (TB).
• Deaths from infectious disease were commonest in the young and most of the decline in the death rate occurred among infants, children and young adults

Question 3

What was the main cause of death by the 1950s?

Answer 3

By the 1950s, so-called ‘diseases of affluence’ like heart disease and cancers replaced infectious diseases as the main cause of death. These degenerative diseases affect the middle aged and old more than the young

Question 4

Outline the reasons for the decline in deaths from infections

Answer 4

• Improved nutrition
• Medical improvements
• Smoking diet
• Public health measures
• Other social changes

Question 5

Describe improved nutrition as a reason for the decline in the death rate

Answer 5

• McKeown argues improved nutrition accounted for up to half the reduction in death rates, and was important in reducing deaths from TB.
• Better nutrition increased resistance to infection and increases the survival changed of those who did become infected.

Question 6

Give evaluation for improved nutrition as a reason for the decline in the death rate

Answer 6

• McKeown doesn’t explain why females, who receive a smaller share of the family food supply, lived longer than males. He also fails to explain why deaths from some infectious diseases, like measles and infant diarrhoea actually rose at a time of improving nutrition
• There are hereditary diseases
• Cheaper and unhealthier food is available to people

Question 7

Describe medical improvements as a reason for the decline in the death rate

Answer 7

• Before the 1950s, despite some important innovations, medical improved played almost no part in the reduction of deaths from infectious disease
• After the 1950s, improved medical knowledge, techniques and organisations helped to reduced death rates. Advances like antibiotics, immunisation, blood transfusion, improved maternity services and the NHS in 1948.
• More recently, improved medication, by-pass surgery and other developments have reduced death from heart disease by a third

Question 8

Give evaluation for medical improvements as a reason for the decline in the death rate

Answer 8

There are different statistics in the hospital for ethnic and socioeconomic status

Question 9

Describe smoking and diet as a reason for the decline in the death rate

Answer 9

Harper argues the greatest fall in death rates in recent decades, isn’t from medical improvements, but is from fewer people smoking.

Question 10

Give evaluation for smoking and diet as a reason for the decline in the death rate

Answer 10

• In the 21c, obesity has replaced smoking as the new lifestyle epidemic. e.g. in 2012, one quarter of all UK adults were obese
• Deaths from obesity have been kept low due to drug therapies.
• Harper suggests that we may be moving to an ‘American’ health culture where lifestyles are unhealthy but a long lifespan is achieved by use of costly medication

Question 11

Describe public health measures as a reason for the decline in the death rate

Answer 11

• In the 20c, more effective central and local government with the necessary power to pass and enforce laws led to a range of improved in public health and the quality of the environment
• This included improvement in housing (better ventilated and less overcrowded accommodation), purer drinking water, laws to fight the adulteration of food and drink and improved sewage disposal methods.
• The Clean Air Acts reduced air pollution0, such as the smog that led to 4,000 deaths in 4 days in 1952

Question 12

Give evaluation for public health measures as a reason for the decline in the death rate

Answer 12

Public health measures are dependent on government funding and their priorities

Question 13

Describe other social changes as a reason for the decline in the death rate

Answer 13

• The decline of dangerous manual occupations (mining)
• Smaller families reduced transmission rates of infection
• Greater public knowledge of the causes of illness
• Lifestyle changes, reduction in the number of men who smoke
• Higher incomes, allowing for a healthier lifestyle

Question 14

Define life expectancy

Answer 14

How long on average a person born in a given year can expect to love. As death rates have fallen, so life expectancy has increased.

Question 15

Describe the life expectancy in the UK

Answer 15

• Males born in England in 1900 could expect on average to live until they were 50 (57 for females
• Males born in England in 2013 can expect to live for 90.7 years (94 for females)
• Over the past 2 centuries, life expectancy has increased by about 2 years per decade

Question 16

What is a reason for lower average life expectancy in the past?

Answer 16

• A reason for lower life expectancy in 1900, many infants and children didn’t survive beyond the early years of life.
• To put the improvement in life expectancy into perspective, we can note that a new born baby today has a better chance if reaching its 65th birthday than a baby born in 1900 had reaching its 1st birthday

Question 17

What happens if the long lifespan continues?

Answer 17

• If the trend of long longevity continues, Harper predicts we will achieve ‘radical longevity’ with many more centenarians (people aged over 100).
• Currently there are about 10,000 in the UK, by 2100 there are projected to be 1 million

Question 18

Describe regional differences in life expectancy

Answer 18

Those living in the North and Scotland have a lower life expectancy than those in the South

Question 19

Describe class differences in life expectancy

Answer 19

• Working-class men in unskilled jobs are nearly 3x more likely to die before they’re 65 compared with men in professional jobs
• Walker argues those living in the poorest areas of England die on average 7 years earlier than those in the richest areas, while the average difference in disability-free life expectancy is 17 years.