People’s Health - Modern Period/20th Century Flashcards
Diet - Positives
• Better checks on the quality of food and from Spain, America and New Zealand - varied and exotic diet
• Grocery chains became popular - Sainsbury’s, Lipton’s - food is more accessible and cheaper
• Rationing food in WW2 improved health - prevented obesity
Diet - Negatives
• Fears about artificial ingredients (added sugars, colour, salt) have led to health concerns
• Food is now processed with cans, refrigeration, and pre-cooked meals - less nutritional value, ‘under-nourished but over fed nation’ as described by Dr Rangan Chatterjee
• Luxuries like chocolate, biscuits and jam have become more affordable - this added sugar has led to more obesity and diabetes
• Since the 1980s, there have been several health scares about food, e.g. chicken and sugar
• Indian, Chinese food and other takeaways became more popular since 1970s which has worsened health
• In 2013 - 44% of men and 33% of women were declared overweight. The BMA today often highlights this issues
Leisure and inactivity
• During WW2 people did more physical activity as fuel was rationed and public transport reduced - beneficial for health
• Labour saving devices have made us become more inactive: computers, TV
• After 1970s, most families could afford a car - more in active
• Growth in leisure/tech industries means we are less active than in 1900s
• Longer holidays and shorter working hours, growth in office jobs - less active
Housing
• Most public housing is now in private landlords’ hands and there is a lack of affordable council houses and flats
• High-rise blocks of flats create their own problems. Loneliness, building quality and isolation increase
• Cheap high rise accommodation with gas and electricity after WW2
Air quality
• The Clean Air Act 1956 smokeless fuel and created smoke free areas
• Since 1980, a high increase in car ownership increased air pollution and asthma
• Burning coal led to smog in the first part of the 20th century
Government
• Between 1964 and 2016 the government took steps to tackle smoking and banned smoking in public places
• NHS was brought in as part of the Labour government’s war on poverty, ignorance and disease in 1944
• In 1974, the Health and Safety at Work Act came in with laws to protect workers
• Action on smoking has been criticised as too slow as tax revenue would have been lost. Tobacco companies also pressured governments
• 1902 saw the first Liberal Law and the Midwives Act to help mothers and babies
• In 1908 Old Age Pensions were introduced for the first time to prevent the elderly from going to workhouses
NHS
• Brought in as part of Labour’s war on poverty, ignorance and disease
• NHS was set up and opened in January 1948. Offered free health to all British people
• Initially, NHS saw criticism from doctors from private practises
• Clement Atlee - prime minister who passes the law
Why was the NHS introduced?
• William Beveridge (1879 - 1963) was a social economist who published a report titled ‘Social Insurance and Allied Services’ in 1942 which provides blueprint for social policy in post-war Britain
• Identified ‘Five Giant Evils’ in society: squalor, ignorance, want, idleness and disease - gov. need to tackle
• Following WW2 there were lots of casualties, so NHS was the way to tackle it
How has our health stayed the same?
• Still have NHS now - everyone has access to healthcare
• Still have vaccinations, maternity wards
• Blood transfusions still possible
Why is it an important event in the history of public health?
• Before NHS healthcare was a luxury
• Working class now had access to healthcare, which previously they would have had to save emergency money for - expectation of good health was low
• Before NHS, people expected to be ill
How does it affect the people’s health?
• 1st year - 33 million dentures made - nation had bad teeth
• Everyone has access - women, men, children, poor, etc
• Life expectancy increased
• 8 million people hadn’t seen a doctor before 1948 because they couldn’t afford it
• Medical breakthroughs - cancer treatments - transplants
• Infant mortality decreases
How has our health improved/worsened?
• People have to wait up to a year for treatments
• Higher life expectancy (male from 65.9 - 79.5) (females from 70.3 - 83.1)
• Prescription charges have increased from free in 1948 - £8.80 in 2018 (England)
• Not everything is free
• Dental work/opticians are no longer free
• Waiting list for operation
• Major breakthroughs possible
Government housing after WW1 - positive
• 1909 - parliament banned any new back-to-back housing
• Housing Act of 1919 - councils became landlords for poor by building new rented housing for working class people
• Taxes used to fund local building programme
• New standards for space, water supply an drainage - controlled damp-proofing, ventilation and window sizes
• 1921-1932 (Country Fit for Heroes) - promised 500,000 new houses
• work began in Dagenham and 25,000 were built
• Local councils set up housing committees
• Housing Act in 1930 - councils could force private landlords to sell their houses in slums to council
• Slums then cleared and land used to build new, clean homes
• MT passed a housing act in 1980 - tenants have the right to buy council homes
• rise in renting from private landlords
• can work very well, however reports in last decade revealed 50% of private rented housing failed to meet gov standards set in 2000 - eg damp, excessive cold, poor lighting
Housing and government after WW1 - negative
• Poor families still living in unhealthy houses in 1900
• Private land-lords rent out back-to-back hoses to working class families
• Worst slums remained throughout the 20th century , poor living here
• Private land lords didn’t build new houses for poor families
• Bomb damage from WWII meant 475,000 houses destroyed
• Flats went high rise - 4500 tower blocks built by 1980 and although the modern facilities were positive, people became lonely and depressed as away from communities in neighbourhoods
• 1979 - 42% of pop living in council housing compared to 1% in 1900
• Law from MT meant fewer houses available for those in need
Change since 1900-2000 (government and welfare)
• Biggest change at the end of WWII when labour are elected
• NHS is created in 1948
• 2010 - cost of welfare state is too much
Continuity in 1900(government and welfare)
• 1880s - men over age of 21 can vote
• 1906 - 1911 - laws passed to make life better for the poor
• Beginning of ‘welfare state’ gov use tax to pay for people
Change since 1900-2000 (Science and Technology)
• chemical industries led to many advances
• antibiotics and contraceptive pill
• war is more deadly
• new environmental changes
Continuity in 1900(science and technology)
• 1896 - first motor cars used on British roads
• Cinemas
• Advances in travel and communication
Change since 1900-2000 (beliefs and values)
• 1948 - Declaration of Human Rights
• Most people in Britain turned to science - only 10% attend church
Continuity in 1900 (beliefs and values)
• 1896- British Humanist’s Society is founded and people began to question God
• First World War added to doubt in belief of God
Change since 1900-2000 (work and wealth)
• Taxes mean bigger middle class
• Most people have much more comfortable lives
• More jobs in service industries
Continuity in 1900 (work and wealth)
• Most people worked practically - coal mining, textiles etc
• Unusual for married women to work
• Young women were domestic workers for rich
• Poor quality housing
Change since 1900-2000 (people and population)
• Wider mix of ethnic groups
• extra demand on Wealth-fare State due to bigger population
Continuity in 1900 (people and population)
• Farming still an important part of life
• Trains meant fresh food could be transported
• Tractors invented
• more moving to the city
Change since 1900-2000 (leisure and lifestyle)
• more generous holidays and less working hours
• growth in leisure industry
• most activity substituted for TV/electronic devices
Change since 1900-2000 (leisure and lifestyle)
• more generous holidays and less working hours
• growth in leisure industry
• most activity substituted for TV/electronic devices
Continuity since 1900 (leisure and lifestyle)
• Saturday and Sunday free
• Lifestyle involved lots of leisure
HIV/AIDS and- outbreaks and origin
• unprotected sex
• unsterile needles
• pregnancy/breastfeeding
• blood transfusion
HIV/AIDS - symptoms
• muscle and joint pain
• weight loss
• heat
• rash
• nausea
• frequent confusion
• diarrhoea
• pneumonia
• sores on skin
HIV/AIDS - 1970s-1983 - Growing Awareness
• 1970s - doctors in Europe, North America and Africa encountered strange new condition
• 1981 - 5 gay men in LA and 1 in Britain died from AIDS
• 1983 - media took an interest
• church leaders preached it was God’s punishment for gay people
• urged gay addicts not to donate blood
• 1984 - discovered viruses which caused AIDS and in 1986 named it HIV
• bodies would waste and they died
HIV/AIDS - 1984-85 - Growing Alarm
• Fears increased in 1985 when the Royal college of nursing (wrongly) predicted 1 million cases of AIDS in the UK by 1991
• fire services didn’t give mouth to mouth
• churchgoers refused to share cup which everyone drank wine from
• parent withdrew children from school if a child had HIV
• Gov caused alarm by ordering hospitals to detain patients with AIDS even if they wished to leave
• Docs and visitors had to wear gowns, masks and gloves - reinforces idea that aids is spread by physical contact
HIV/AIDS - 1984-85 - Growing Alarm
• Fears increased in 1985 when the Royal college of nursing (wrongly) predicted 1 million cases of AIDS in the UK by 1991
• fire services didn’t give mouth to mouth
• churchgoers refused to share cup which everyone drank wine from
• parent withdrew children from school if a child had HIV
• Gov caused alarm by ordering hospitals to detain patients with AIDS even if they wished to leave
• Docs and visitors had to wear gowns, masks and gloves - reinforces idea that aids is spread by physical contact
Spanish flu - origin
• Kansas USA
• Bird flu
• passed onto farm animals, then to Albert Gitchell
• made food for soldiers in war, March 1918
• in 3 weeks, 1100 men are seriously ill
Trenches - Spanish Flu
• killed 3x as many as WW1
• conditions lead to spreading more quickly - narrow, overcrowded, rats, etc
• 2nd round spread through trenches
Spanish flu - symptoms
• pain all over body
• lungs fill up with blood
• lungs turn blue
• cold - like
• vomiting blood
• only small percent doe
• headache
Spanish flu - medical knowledge
• believe it was bacteria
• pandemic burns itself out
• didn’t know the cause
• Louis Pasteur discovered germs - me at that people used masks
• virus was very small - difficult to see
Spanish flu - James Niven
• Responsible for health of Manchester
• believed it was an exceptional flu
• saved lots of lives
• actively tries to stop it
• tracks slow down
• tracks outbreak
• produces statistics
• concerned about children
• wants to close down schools/Sunday schools
Spanish flu - James Niven
• Responsible for health of Manchester
• believed it was an exceptional flu
• saved lots of lives
• actively tries to stop it
• tracks slow down
• tracks outbreak
• produces statistics
• concerned about children
• wants to close down schools/Sunday schools
Spanish flu - Dr Basil Hood
• Most of nurses are on the western front
• swamped with patients in his hospitals
• struggles to keep hospitals running - collapses due to exhaustion
• nurses ‘dropping like pins’
• worries staff will catch the disease from patients
• women doctors were engaged - social change - ministry of health created
Spanish flu - Treatments
• People wear masks - recommended by Niven’s leaflets
• Nurses dying
• Bedrest, hot drinks, etc.
• Couldn’t develop effective vaccines /drugs
• Recommended to gov to invest money into researching
Spanish flu - September 1918
• Returns, mutated in an even more deadly form
• Body of a soldier is opened up - longs have lots of blood inside, turned blue
• Request to have camp isolated is denied
• Kills more quickly and violently
• Begins in America
• Better at infecting human cells - children more likely to recover
Spanish flu - November 1918
• crowded streets, hugging and kissing - spread flu
• families die due to meeting
• celebrations in the street - easier to spread
Spanish flu - Australia/additional info
• Australia sealed off entire country from the outside world - saves 1000s of lives
• ships - Food taken out of fridge, bodies put in - floors slippery from blood
• Encouraged to isolate
• Discouraged from coughing in streets - didn’t issue this advice
• Some dead thrown over-board
• ships for military packed with people
• emerges where ships arrive
• India - worse infected (4x Britain)
1902 - regulation and training of midwives
• Midwives now have to pass a defined period of training to practise. There was now an organisation that regulated their work. less death during child birth
1919 - slum clearance by local authorities
• local councils were ordered to clear slums (often the remains of back to back houses) and build new council houses
1940 - immunisation programme begins
• free vaccines began to be offered to the public. Diphtheria in 1940 and tuberculosis in 1964 were some of the first
1956 Clean air act
• Limits on pollution are introduced in towns and cities
1974 Health and safety act
• sets out duties to ensure a safe working environment
• employers must ensure there is safe equipment, appropriate training and carry out risk assessments in the work place
2007 smoking ban
• banned in all public places after a 2005 medial report showed that ‘passive smoking’ killed more than 11,000 a year
2000s Media Campaign
• government produced advertisements to encourage people to do more exercise and eat more fruits and vegetables
2000s Media Campaign
• government produced advertisements to encourage people to do more exercise and eat more fruits and vegetables
1944 - The Butler Act
• makes secondary education compulsory and raises the school leaving age to 15
