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A SURVEY OF LEUKIEMIA IN THE COMMONWEALTH
Author(s) -
COLTON R. S.
Publication year - 1959
Publication title -
australasian annals of medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.596
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1445-5994
pISSN - 0571-9283
DOI - 10.1111/imj.1959.8.1.55
Subject(s) - commonwealth , incidence (geometry) , demography , mortality rate , medicine , age groups , geography , surgery , archaeology , physics , sociology , optics
SUMMARY A study is presented of the type, age and sex incidence of leukæmia in Adelaide public hospitals from 1933 to 1953, and of the numerical incidence of the disease from mortality rates in both South Australia and the Commonwealth of Australia from 1929 to 1956. The findings indicate that a considerable increase in mortality rates in both State and Commonwealth has occurred, and that this increase has been comparable to that reported from the United States of America. In South Australia, the incidence of deaths from leukwmia per 100,000 rose from 1.03 in 1929 to 5.18 in 1956. In the Commonwealth as a whole, the rise over the same period was from 1.88 to 5.21. A statistical analysis of the Commonwealth figures suggests a steady rate of increase from 1940 to 1945 and from 1947 to 1956, with a sudden increase in frequency of deaths at 1947. The rate of increase from 1933 to 1940 was nearly 10% per annum . The mortality rates for 1933, 1940, 1947 and 1954 divided into quinquennial age periods also suggest that the increase after 1940 has been mainly in the older age groups. The type, age and sex incidence studied from 295 hospital cases in Adelaide show few unusual features. Chronic myeloid leukæmia was the commonest type, but a greater increase in acute leukæmia and the chronic lymphatic type had occurred over the final ten years of the survey. No obvious seasonal trend or pattern of presentation of acute leukæmia is noted ; but more patients were admitted to hospital from the metropolitan area of Adelaide as opposed to rural areas, than would be accounted for by differences of population.