Louis I. Dublin

Age and Sex Distribution.

4.1 Age and Sex Distribution: This hospital based study was conducted on 279 adult patients with metabolic syndrome (MS) and 50 healthy controls. All patients were residing in rural area of Jaipur. As per the age and sex distribution of 279 cases, 51.25% were male and 48.75% were female, constituting male to female ratio of 1.05:1.00 (Table-1 & Graph-1a & 1b). Majority of patients and control subjects were in the age groups of 41-50 years (N=75, 26.89%) followed by age group of 51-60 (N=68, 24.37%) (Table-1, 2 & Graph-1a, 2). Mean age of all patients was 50.37±13.99 years (Males 49.77±13.77 years and Females 50.98±14.25 years). Mean age of control group was 43.92±10.19 years (Table-3, Graph-3a, 3b).

The Health of the Negro

THE facts on Negro health are of the greatest interest to workers in the health field for a variety of reasons. Negroes constitute close to a tenth of the total population of the country. They are a clear-cut racial group, with very definite health problems that call for solution. Health is basic to the general welfare of the Negro as it is to no other race. An improvement in Negro health, to the point where it would compare favorably with that of the white race, would at one stroke wipe out many disabilities from which the race suffers, improve its economic status and stimulate its native abilities as would no other single improvement. These are the social implications of the facts of Negro health. There is, however, another and very interesting aspect of this discussion, namely, the health of the Negro as a racial problem. The Negro in America has clearly been outside of a normal environment. Just as it has proved difficult for white men to live in the tropics, so have

Trends in Longevity

LIVING conditions as we know them here today imply, among other things, a high standard of public health. But as we look back over the centuries, or look abroad over some of the more remote parts of the earth, we find a wide range of circumstances, for not all peoples have shared equally in the advancement of science and the technical arts. Some have been held back by adverse climatic conditions, as in the extreme north; others are handicapped by outmoded traditions or by sheer superstitions ; and still others have lagged in following the lead of the most progressive nations. And so, as contemporaries on this same globe, we find the white population of New Zealand enjoying an average length of life of about 67 years and, by way of contrast, the people of India and China living on an average a bare 30 years, corresponding perhaps to the conditions among the Romans in classic times. These divergences are not due to basic differences in human stock. The upper limit of life-the span of life as it is called-for those who do survive

Committee on Administrative Practice : Report of the Committee

T HE COMMITTEE on Administrative Practice was reorganized and placed on a permanent basis at the Buffalo meeting of a year ago. It is now composed of 12 members appointed by the President of the American Public Health Association to serve for 4-year terms, in overlapping groups, so that 3 members are appointed each year; plus the Executive Secretary of the Association and the 3 officers of the Health Officers section as ex officio members, 16 members in all. The committee, as its work has developed during the past 5 years (with its Field Staff), has come to constitute essentially the technical service division of the A. P. H. A. organization. It appears to have at the moment 3 essential and primary functions. These are: A. The collection of material in regard to existing health department practice by surveys and questionnaires B. The critical analysis of the data thus obtained and the formulation of the results of such analysis in the shape of model forms and programs C. The making available, to individual communities, of the results of procedures A and B by operating an information service and by making on request more or less detailed local surveys and appraisals A fourth function, that of organized publicity to further the improvement of health department practice by the wider use of the technical machinery now available, has been more or less forced upon the committee; but much of this work will now be shifted to the recently organized Promotion Division of the A. P. H. A. office. We may conveniently review the work of the past year and the plans for next year under the headings just outlined, although the first two functions, the collection of data and the development from them of model forms and programs, must necessarily be considered together since they are intimately interlocked. The most important single task, upon which the committee is now engaged is the revision of the Appraisal Form for City Health Work under a sub-committee of which G. T. Palmer, Dr. P. H., is chairman. This Appraisal Form, which was placed in your hands in January 1926, has exhibited a usefulness beyond our highest expectations. It has been said, and, we believe, with some justice, that no single factor has ever done more than has the use of this Appraisal Form to develop city health department practice in the United States; and it has been used to some extent even in foreign countries.

Mortality from diabetes throughout the world; characteristics and trends.

The statistics on mortality from diabetes in most countries have been profoundly affected by the new procedure of death certification inaugurated in connection with the Sixth Revision of the International Lists of Diseases and Causes of Death. This procedure came into use in 1949 in some areas and in 1950 in others. In contrast, previous revisions of the International List, which were made at approximately 10-year intervals since 1900, had little effect on the comparability of the statistics of diabetes mortality. While deaths since 1949 or 1950 have been classified for certain series by both the new and the previous procedures, the resulting figures by the latter are only approximate, primarily because the change in certification itself affects the frequency with which diabetes is mentioned. Moreover, physicians and vital statistics offices have not had sufficient experience with the new certificate and procedure to permit accurate evaluation of the effects of the change. This will take a number of years yet and until then, the recent trends in mortality from the disease will remain obscure. For all these reasons, it is necessary to divide the record of diabetes mortality into two parts, with 1949* as the dividing line or, in certain cases, 1950. The major part of this paper will deal with the record for 1948 and prior years.

Longevity of the industrial worker.

FORTY years ago, about the time that the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company began to study intensively the mortality of American wage earners and their families, the country was shocked by conditions under which many workers earned -their daily bread. The reports of Hamilton, Hayhurst, and other pioneers in industrial hygiene made unpleasant reading. Measured even by the relatively low standards of the day, the lot of the average wage worker was hard. Accidents, crowded working conditions, bad plant sanitation, uncontrolled dusts, fumes, and gases took a heavy toll. Long hours of work and low pay were the order of the day, making the worker an easy prey to tuberculosis and other infectious diseases to which he was exposed in his off hours as well as while at work. Small wonder then that death rates of workers were high and their lives relatively short. In the four decades which have passed, the health of workers has received the attention of an increasing number of physicians, engineers, chemists, and other technicians. Today, industrial medicine is a well organized and recognized specialty devoted to meeting the health problems of workers. The safety movement has spread rapidly, with the result that our knowledge of the causes of accidents and of the means to prevent them has been greatly increased. Workmens Compensation legislation gave

THE APPLICATION OF THE STATISTICAL METHOD TO PUBLIC HEALTH RESEARCH

T HE statistical method is today an indispensable tool for conducting scientific investigations. It is especially important in the fields of public health and applied sociology, where the data are often not quantitative but qualitative in character and where conclusions drawn are more likely to be subject to error than in the field of the more exact sciences. The statistical method, however, is valuable only in so far as it permits certain deductions to be drawn with precision, thus replacing impression or opinion. It is worse than useless if it does not accomplish this end; for its use gives the appearance of accuracy and reliability to the conclusions which are justified only by the soundness of the method itself. Too many fallacies are mistaken for truth because they are stated in statistical terms or are deduced through apparently accurate statistical procedures. This, indeed, has been the cloak of many an error which has obstructed the progress of good public health work in America. I propose in my part of the symposium to discuss the errors which are most important in themselves or are most frequently met with in the literature of the public health worker. In doing this I shall follow the sequence of the usual investigation. I shall consider, first, those errors which mar the investigation at the very outset, that is, those which arise in the planning of the inquiry, the preparation of the schedule and the collection of the data. Second, 1 shall point out those errors which are commonly made in the editing, classifying and tabulating of data. Finally, I shall consider some errors which occur in the analysis or interpretation of tabulated facts. My text and illustrations will be drawn from the current literature of our field.