How have ‘avoidable death’ indices for England and Wales changed? 1974–78 compared with 1979–83

Abstract

Changes in age-standardized mortality ratios for eight major disease groups in England and Wales are compared for the periods 1974-1978 and 1979-1983 for the country as a whole and its regions. each of the causes of death studied except asthma the death rates have declined substantially. The degree of geographic heterogeneity remains high and for all disease groups apart from appendicitis and maternal death is greater than is likely to have occurred by chance. Most of the increase in asthma deaths was in the age group 15 to 34 years. For hypertension and stroke tuberculosis chronic rheumatic heart disease and appendicitis the relative decline has been fairly uniform across age For cervical cancer there has been a rise in mortality amongst women aged less than 44 years and a fall in the older age groups. (EXCERPT)