Deaths from and mortality rates for largely preventable causes of death in whites in the RSA: comparison of the situations in 1970 and 1980

The numbers of deaths from and age-adjusted mortality rates (MRs) for largely preventable causes of death in white males and females aged 15 - 64 years in 1970 and 1980 were compared. The causes of death considered were lung cancer, ischaemic heart disease (IHD), cerebrovascular disease, chronic lung diseases, cirrhosis of the liver, motor vehicle accidents and suicide. In spite of an increase in the white population in this age group from 2,39 million in 1970 to 2,93 million in 1980, the number of deaths from the above causes decreased, with two exceptions. The exceptions were lung cancer, where the number of deaths increased from 482 in 1970 to 535 in 1980, and suicide--up from 433 to 516. The decreases over the 10-year period were substantial in some cases. For example, the number of deaths from IHD fell from 4000 to 3486. The MRs (those for 1980 were age-adjusted) decreased over the 10-year period in all cases, except in the case of lung cancer where the MR remained at 20/100 000. This seems to indicate that anti-smoking campaigns in RSA have not yet begun to influence the incidence of this disease in the white population. Language: en