§ Mr. Kinnockasked the Secretary of State for Social Services, what is the average incidence of (a) all illnesses, (b) respiratory illness, and (c) congenital illness in each area of England and Wales for which statistics are collected.
§ Mr. Deakins,pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 21st February 1977; Vol. 926, c. 457–8], gave the following information:
No national statistics of all illness occurring in the general population are available from medical sources. The Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (OPCS) publishes notifications of infectious diseases and congenital malformations and also maintains a cancer register. Information is available about illness reported by the general medical 351W practitioners to the National Morbidity Surveys and about hospital in-patients from the Hospital Inpatient Enquiry. Statistics of illness causing absence from work are derived from claims for sickness and invalidity benefits. The General Household Survey, a continuous sample survey of people living in private—i.e., non-institutional — households, provides information on self-reported illness in the
SELF-REPORTED ILLNESS (GHS SURVEY) Standard region Chronic sickness: Persons reporting limiting longstanding illness Acute sickness: Persons reporting restriction of usual activities in a two-week reference period All illness Disease of the respiratory system* Congenital anomalies and perinatal Diseases † All illness Disease of the respiratory system* Congenital anomalies and perinatal diseases† (Rates per thousand population) North … 138 25 … 88 33 … Yorkshire and Humberside … 133 23 … 82 26 … North-West … 141 31 … 98 35 … East Midlands … 138 21 … 84 31 … West Midlands … 129 25 … 97 35 … East Anglia … 125 14 … 85 30 … South-Fast … 123 21 … 92 33 … South-West … 129 20 … 88 30 … Wales … 176 36 … 111 40 … England and Wales … 133 24 3 92 33 (0.3) *International Classification of Diseases (8th Revision) Nos. 460–519. A few persons reporting more than one disease of the respiratory system have been counted more than once. † International classification of Diseases (8th Revision) Nos. 740–779. The number of persons in this category in the Survey is too small to permit disaggregation by region or for Wales. The rates—per 10,000 total births—of babies notified as having congenital malformations present at birth during the period 1973 to 1975 are as follows:
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CONGENITAL MALFORMATIONS (NOTIFICATIONS VIA AREA HEALTH AUTHORITIES) Standard Region Rates per ten thousands total births North 196 Yorkshire and Humberside 210 North-West 196 East Midlands 247 West Midlands 189 East Anglia 161 South-East 194 South-West 210 Wales 156 England and Wales 198 Many of the malformations notified are trivial, but others cause death during childhood. Statistics for regional and area health authority areas are available in the OPCS Monitor Series MB3, first issued on 31st August 1976. general population. For further discussion of this aspect I refer my hon. Friend to the General Household Survey, Introductory Report, HMSO 1973.
The estimated rates, per 1,000 population, below are derived from the corn-bitted results of the 1973 and 1974 General Household Surveys and relate to persons reporting illness and not to the incidence of disease.