The Recent Mortality of Males in England and Wales in Later Middle Life

Extract

During the discussion on Beard's paper (J.I.A. lxxvii, 425) A. C. Edwards commented on the relatively heavy death-rate during the last twenty years among men in England and Wales who were aged 20–40 in 1916. He pointed out that, in the tables on the Trend of Mortality in England and Wales that appear in J.I.A. from time to time, there is a peak in the ratios of men's mortality to the 1930–32 standard that has moved from ages 45–49 in 1933 to 60–64 in 1944–48, and he put forward as a possible explanation that this age-group lost a number of its fittest members during the 1914–18 war and that the survivors who had been on active service have been suffering from delayed and cumulative after-effects. He added that the excess mortality at the top of the hump might be 10–15% and suggested that some marked changes in male annuitants' mortality in the 60's and 70's might be observed during the next few years.