Elsevier

The Lancet

Volume 327, Issue 8489, 10 May 1986, Pages 1077-1081
The Lancet

Epidemiology
INFANT MORTALITY, CHILDHOOD NUTRITION, AND ISCHAEMIC HEART DISEASE IN ENGLAND AND WALES

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(86)91340-1Get rights and content

Abstract

Although the rise in ischaemic heart disease in England and Wales has been associated with increasing prosperity, mortality rates are highest in the least affluent areas. On division of the country into two hundred and twelve local authority areas a strong geographical relation was found between ischaemic heart disease mortality rates in 1968-78 and infant mortality in 1921-25. Of the twenty-four other common causes of death only bronchitis, stomach cancer, and rheumatic heart disease were similarly related to infant mortality. These diseases are associated with poor living conditions and mortality from them is declining. Ischaemic heart disease is strongly correlated with both neonatal and postneonatal mortality. It is suggested that poor nutrition in early life increases susceptibility to the effects of an affluent diet.

References (33)

  • Registrar General's decennial supplement, occupational mortality, England and Wales 1970-72

    (1978)
  • Mj Gardner et al.

    Atlas of cancer mortality in England and Wales 1968-78

    (1983)
  • Mj Gardner et al.

    Atlas of mortality from selected diseases in England and Wales 1968-78

    (1984)
  • B. Woolf

    Studies on infant mortality: part II, social aetiology of stillbirths and infant deaths in county boroughs of England and Wales

    Br J Social Med

    (1947)
  • Sj Pocock et al.

    British regional heart study: geographic variations in cardiovascular mortality, and the role of water quality

    Br Med J

    (1980)
  • M. Fulton et al.

    Regional variations in mortality from ischaemic heart and cerebrovascular disease in Britain

    Br Heart J

    (1978)
  • Cited by (2075)

    • Preterm birth: A neuroinflammatory origin for metabolic diseases?

      2024, Brain, Behavior, and Immunity - Health
    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text