Seasonal Swing in Mortality in England and Wales

Ath. P. Kanellakis
1958 Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health  
The very detailed tables of deaths in England and Wales which are published annually by the Registrar-General permit a close examination of the variation in mortality that occurs month by month. It can be studied separately for each sex, at different ages, and for the numerically important causes of death. For the purpose of the present study the deaths that took place in each month in the 5 years 1952-56 were added together. They were then adjusted to allow for the varying length of the
more » ... r month and expressed as a percentage of the deaths occurring throughout the whole 5 years. The variability of these percentages has been measured by the coefficient of variation. This variability, together with the months of maximum and minimum mortality, and the ratios of one to the other, is set out by age and sex in Table I . The monthly changes are shown in more detail in Fig. 1 A and B (overleaf). VARIABILITY BY AGE AND SEX.-The seasonal swing is least marked, it will be seen, in the neo-natal period of life. At these early ages, congenital defects, birth injuries, and prematurity form the dominating causes of death and the external environment is likely to be of relatively little importance. There is, however, a sharp change in the remaining period of the first year of life. In these 11 months of age the seasonal variability is at its maximum with a coefficient of variation of 34. The coefficient then falls steadily with age until, at 55 years and above, the population reveals once more an increasing susceptibility to the winter environment and its attendant respiratory infections. The seasonal variability in the very old (75 and over) approaches that in the very young.
doi:10.1136/jech.12.4.197 fatcat:lfdwag7ylnedracd3t6wsc6bai