The bit about how far medicine has come in the last several decades may count as a cliché, but the phrase comes from somewhere. Our scientific understanding of the human body continues to grow as new research is conducted and new technologies become available (not ChatGPT, mind you).
With all the new tools and techniques available to health care providers and researchers, it’s not a bad guess to say that “lifestyle diseases” don’t account for as many deaths today than they did in the early twentieth century. Read on for a more in-depth look.
Have deaths due to lifestyle diseases declined since the early 1900s?
Yes. Deaths from lifestyle diseases have significantly declined since the early 1900s thanks to advances in medicine, public health measures, and greater awareness of risk factors.
Surprise! It’s time for a pop quiz. Don’t worry, it’s just one question, and you have a fifty-fifty shot if you guess.
“True or False: Deaths due to lifestyle diseases have declined sine the early 1900s.”
The correct answer is True. Lifestyle diseases- also referred to as non-communicable diseases, or NCDs- are diseases/disorders that can be (but not always are) caused by outside factors involved in the decisions a person makes, including eating habits and smoking/drinking. Such NCDs include certain cancers (remember to put on sunscreen before you go outside), loss of liver function (heavy drinking can damage the liver), and countless others (adults want us to eat fruits and vegetables for a reason). Some diseases/disorders that aren’t necessarily “lifestyle diseases,” such as asthma, can be made worse by unwise decisions such as smoking.
According to a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published by the CDC in 2011, public healthcare changes/advances increased general life expectancy by about thirty years (please note this number is not exact for everyone, as how long a person lives gets determined by many factors, such as genetics, lifestyle habits, and whether or not they looked both ways before crossing the street), such as heart disease/stroke death rates declining by almost two-thirds over the past sixty years thanks to advances in medical technology and spreading knowledge of risks and how to minimize them. However, don’t forget that access to information and testing tools were not always this easy to access and are still out of reach for many.
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What diseases killed people in the early 1900s?
In the early twentieth century, lifestyle diseases were surpassed by infectious diseases in terms of mortality rates. Infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, influenza- yes, as in the flu- pneumonia, and others persisted due to poor sanitation and a bigger lack of medical knowledge than we have today. According to the World Health Organization, doctors didn’t even really make progress toward an effective vaccine until the 1930s, so different strains of influenza virus was able to spread from person to person with no preventative care, possibly killing more people in a 1918-1919 pandemic than the First World War.
In the mid-1900s, as public health measures such as vaccinations, antibiotics, and cleanliness improved, infectious diseases passed the mortality crown to lifestyle diseases. Smoking is well-known as a huge risk factor for NCDs, and while people have been smoking in some form for thousands of years, the negative health effects of cigarettes is relatively recent knowledge. This isn’t to say smoking wasn’t a health risk when infectious diseases ruled (a trend that we can hope doesn’t return, but with the spread of misinformation by people in undeserved positions of power, pessimism is well-founded), of course, but with people surviving infections long enough to pick up a pack, lifestyle diseases caused by smoking and other unhealthy decisions were able to take centerstage.
What was the most likely cause of death for an individual born in the 1900s?
“Born in the 1900s” is vague, since “the 1900s” can be interpreted as the entire century, including and up to people who are in their 20s now, or as the first decade of that century. For our purposes, let’s assume the question is addressing those born between 1900 and 1910.
As previously discussed, infectious diseases claimed the crown for the highest mortality rates. Specifically, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill lists the top 3 causes of death in the year 1900 as pneumonia and the flu (both diseases that can be beared today, though the invention and maintenance of up-to-date vaccines lends significantly to prevention); tuberculosis (historically known as consumption and caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis); and gastrointestinal infections (referring to infections of the digestive system- surely some unpleasant imagery is coming to your head right about now).
Of course, there’s no guarantee that infectious diseases would be the death of any given person born in the early twentieth century. Accidents happen, diseases/disorders with unknown causes develop, and, as uncomfortable as the thought is, the world has no shortage of things that can kill you. NCDs such as heart disease didn’t suddenly appear when scientists invented vaccines- they’ve always been around.
