Press releases Monday 7 September to Friday 11 September 2009
Please remember to credit the BMJ
as source when publicising an article and to tell your readers that they can
read its full text on the journal's website (http://www.bmj.com).
(1) No change in the link between deprivation and death since 1900s
(2) Top doctor backs BMA's call to ban alcohol advertising
(3) Doctor's dilemma over flu jab after Guillain-Barré syndrome
(1) No change in the link between deprivation and death since 1900s
(Research: Comparisons between geographies of mortality and deprivation from the 1900s and 2001: spatial analysis of census and mortality statistics)
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/doi/10.1136/bmj.b3454
The link between deprivation and premature death is as strong today as it was in the early 1900s according to research published on bmj.com today.
The study, the first of its kind to directly compare modern deprivation and mortality with conditions a century ago in the whole of England and Wales, has been undertaken by Ian Gregory, Senior Lecturer at Lancaster University.
Using the census mortality data from 634 districts in the 1900s, Gregory has explored the links between deprivation and mortality in Edwardian England and Wales to premature death and poverty in 2001.
The twentieth century saw huge improvements in mortality rates in England and Wales. In the 1900s, 33% of deaths occurred in the under 5s and only 13% occurred over the age of 75 - one hundred years later deaths aged under 5 are less than 1% and 65% of deaths now occur in those over 75. Life expectancy has also improved, rising from 46 for males to 77 and 50 for females to 81.
In the 1900s the main causes of death were respiratory, infectious and parasitic diseases but in 2001 this changed to cancers, heart diseases and strokes. The experience of poverty changed too, while in the 1900s it meant not having the bare necessities for existence, a century later relative poverty meant comparing an individual’s income or deprivation with those experienced by society as a whole.
Despite the dramatic decline in mortality in the twentieth century the link between mortality and deprivation across England and Wales "remains as strong today as it was a century ago," says Gregory.
The author argues that links between mortality and deprivation are deeply entrenched and that patterns from the Edwardian era are strong predictors of ill health today. Gregory maintains that modern diseases "have a possible long-term link to unhealthy living conditions in the distant past." He says: "The strong association between modern deaths from lung cancer and 1900s mortality suggests that this might in part be a cultural effect caused by the long term prevalence of smoking in poorer areas."
Contact:
Ian Gregory, Senior Lecturer in Digital Humanities, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
Email: I.Gregory@lancaster.ac.uk
Also new on bmj.com this week (not embargoed):
(2) Top doctor backs BMA's call to ban alcohol advertising
(Editorial: Alcohol and social marketing)
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/339/sep08_2/b3646
The BMA's call to ban alcohol advertising because of its damaging effects on young people is "a logical recommendation to attempt to reverse the all embracing pro-alcohol culture that has grown up in a period of deregulation and liberalisation over the last quarter of a century," according to Ian Gilmore, President of the Royal College of Physicians and Chairman of the Alcohol Health Alliance.
In an editorial published on bmj.com, he suggests that a bigger more public conversation is needed about our attitudes to alcohol as a society.
"The problem is not just about drunk, misbehaving adolescents. We can no longer ignore the many millions of people in the UK who are quietly over-consuming cheap, readily available, and heavily promoted alcohol, storing up major problems for the future," he concludes.
This week's BMJ poll asks: Should all alcohol advertising be banned? View the results at
(3) Doctor's dilemma over flu jab after Guillain-Barré syndrome
(Personal view: Should I have an H1N1 flu vaccination after Guillain-Barré syndrome?)
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/339/sep09_1/b3577
A doctor who developed Guillain-Barré syndrome will consider having the swine flu jab when she returns to work this autumn, despite claims that the vaccine is linked to an increased risk of the disease.
Laura Claire Price, a specialist in respiratory and intensive care medicine, examines the reasons why the vaccine might cause the syndrome, reviews the current evidence, and concludes that she will consider having the jab when it becomes available.
"In view of the potential risks of flu infection as a healthcare professional, the lack of relapse of the syndrome in a sizeable number of people who have had the flu vaccine, and the lack of a persistent causal association, my current view is to consider having the jab when it becomes available," she writes.
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For more information please contact:
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Email: edickinson@bmj.com
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and from:
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