The Epidemiology of Young Adult Phthisis: A Review of All Deaths from Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Young Adults Occurring in the Eastern Division of Glasgow for the Quinquennium 1928-1932

Laidlaw, Stuart (1934) The Epidemiology of Young Adult Phthisis: A Review of All Deaths from Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Young Adults Occurring in the Eastern Division of Glasgow for the Quinquennium 1928-1932. MD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

The aim of this thesis has been to ascertain the relative importance of the factors concerned in the causation and continued prevalence of young adult phthisis in the Eastern Division of Glasgow. To carry out this investigation successfully, it was necessary to select an area suitable in size, and typical of the City as a whole. It was also essential that the investigator should have access to the cases concerned and authority to visit their homes. Only under such conditions could a proper survey be made of home conditions, prior history, and the contacts of the cases examined. The Eastern Division was the area chosen for review, as it fulfilled, in all respects, the essentials quoted above, and had approximately, one quarter of the City's population within its seven wards. The writer, as Medical Officer in charge of the Eastern Tuberculosis Dispensary, had every facility for investigating the cases. From this area the Public Health Department annually receives a total of some 500 notifications of pulmonary tuberculosis, and records during the same time approximately 250 deaths from this disease. As a high degree of accuracy was required before presenting statistical data, it was necessary to extend the investigation over a five year period, so that a series of five hundred young adult cases might be collected for detailed analysis. These cases could be collected in one off two ways - either from the notifications or from the deaths during the period under review. The former method had the obvious disadvantage that there was no possibility of completing a duration table, unless the observer was willing to wait a number of years, whereas, if the latter method (analysis of deaths) were adopted, the cases could be traced back without much difficulty. It was also apparent from a review of the statistics that, as the duration of the large majority was under four years, the cases would be well known to the investigator. The five year period selected extends from 1st January, 1928, until 31st December, 1932.The young adult group includes all the confirmed cases of pulmonary tuberculosis in the age period fifteen to thirty years inclusive, and is generally admitted to be a most refractory one, the mortality rate failing altogether to show the gradual decline noted during recent years in the other age groups. An attempt has been made in the following analytical survey to elucidate this problem and proportion the onus upon the correct factors.

• Item Type: Thesis (MD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: Medicine, Epidemiology
• Date of Award: 1934
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:1934-80016
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 03 Mar 2020 10:07
• Last Modified: 03 Mar 2020 10:07
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/80016