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Answer
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Hint
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Other Social Changes
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In the 20th century: -There was a decline in dangerous manual occupations such as mining. -Smaller families reduced the rate of transmission of infection. -There became a greater public knowledge of the causes of illness. -There were lifestyle changes, especially in the reduction in the number of men who smoke. -People began to earn higher incomes, allowing for a healthier lifestyle. |
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Medical Improvements
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Before the 1950s, despite some important innovations, medical improvements played almost no part in the reduction of deaths from infectious diseases: -However, after the 1950s, improved medical knowledge, techniques and organisation did help to reduce death rates. -Advances included the introduction of antibiotics, immunisation, blood transfusion, improved maternity services, as well as the setting up of the National Health Service in 1948. -More recently, improved medication, by-pass surgery and other developments have reduced deaths from heart disease by 1/3. |
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Sarah Harper (2012)
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According to this sociologist, the greatest fall in death rates in recent decades has simply come from a reduction in the number of people smoking: -However, in the 21st century, obesity has replaced smoking as the new lifestyle epidemic. -For example, in 2012, 1/4 of all UK adults were obese. -Although obesity has increased dramatically, deaths from obesity have been kept low as a result of drug therapies. -She suggests that we may be moving to an 'American' health culture where lifestyles are unhealthy but where a long lifespan is achieved by the use of costly medication. |
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Public Health Measures
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In the 20th century, more effective central and local government with the necessary power to pass and enforce laws led to a range of improvements in public health and the quality of the environment: -These included improvements in housing (producing drier, better-ventilated, less overcrowded accommodation), purer drinking water, laws to combat the adulteration of food and drink, the pasteurisation of milk, and improved sewage disposal methods. -Similarly, the Clean Air Acts reduced air pollution, such as that from the smog that led to 4000 deaths in 5 days in 1952. |
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Answer
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Hint
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Neil Tranter (1996)
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This sociologist found that 3/4 of the decline in death rate from about 1850 to 1970 was due to a fall in the number of deaths from infectious diseases such as: -Diphtheria -Measles -Smallpox -Typhoid -Tuberculosis (TB)
Deaths from infectious diseases were most common in the young and most of the decline in the death rate was among infants, children and young adults. |
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'Diseases of Affluence'
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By the 1950s, these diseases such as heart disease and cancer had replaced infectious diseases as the main cause of death: -These degenerative diseases affect the middle-aged and old more than the young. |
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Biology
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It is possible that the declining death rate of the human population can be explained by humanity developing some natural resistance to some diseases or that some diseases have become less virulent (powerful).
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Thomas McKeown (1972)
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This sociologist argues that improved nutrition accounted for up to half the reduction in death rates, and was particularly important in reducing the number of deaths from tuberculosis: -Better nutrition increased resistance to infection and increased the survival chances of those who did become infected. -However, he doesn't explain why females, who receive a smaller share of the food supply, lived longer than males. -Similarly, he fails to explain why deaths from some infectious diseases, such as measles and infant diarrhoea, rose at a time of improving nutrition. |
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