THE LOSS FROM PREMATURE DEATHS OF ECONOMICALLY ACTIVE MANPOWER IN THE VARIOUS POPULATIONS OF THE RSA .1. LEADING CAUSES OF DEATH - HEALTH STRATEGIES FOR REDUCING MORTALITY

Google Scholar
  • 1 January 1981
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 60  (11) , 411-419
Abstract
Age-adjusted mortality rates (MR)/100,000 for the leading causes of death were calculated for 1970 for Asians, coloreds and blacks and compared with the MR of whites for the economically active age-group of 15-64 yr. Marked differences in mortality patterns were shown by this comparison. At one extreme were the whites in whom the 5 leading cause of death in rank order were ischemic heart disease, motor vehicle accidents, cerebrovascular accidents (CVA), cancer of the digestive system and bronchitis and associated respiratory diseases (a mortality pattern which is characteristic of a developed Western community); at the other extreme were the blacks in whom the 5 leading causes of death in rank order were ill-defined diseases, the pneumonias, tuberculosis, CVA and homicide and unspecified violence (a mortality pattern commonly seen in less developed communities). Reducing mortality in the various populations will not come about by spending more money on hospital-based curative medicine but by greater emphasis on health promotion and disease prevention. Quite different health strategies are needed to reduce mortality in the whites and Asians on the one hand, and the coloreds and blacks on the other. The health strategies required for whites and Asians involve behavioral changes in life-styles; for coloreds and blacks they involve elementary public health measures such as clean water, proper sanitation, better housing, improved nutrition and health education.

This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit: