The Lacuna Project

lacuna (n.) a gap in a record where something should be

Independent research. Not affiliated with any government, agency, or company.

Exhibit 188

The Importance of Social Intervention in Britain's Mortality Decline c.1850–1914: a Re-interpretation of the Role of Public Health

Exhibit 188 · Research article

The Importance of Social Intervention in Britain's Mortality Decline c.1850–1914: a Re-interpretation of the Role of Public Health

Szreter's 1988 article re-interprets the role of public health in Britain's mortality decline between 1850 and 1914 and argues for the importance of social intervention.

Source
Simon Szreter, Social History of Medicine 1(1): 1–38
Date
1988
Grade
Peer-reviewed
Document
https://doi.org/10.1093/shm/1.1.1
Accessed
2026-11-09
Cited by
Findings citing this exhibit

Cited by

Finding MED-10.2
Peer-reviewed Historians moved the credit for the nineteenth-century fall in mortality from diet toward organized public health run by local government. Szreter credited Medical Officers of Health and the sanitary inspectors, housing officers, health visitors, trained midwives and school medical officers they directed, and Colgrove wrote that McKeown's conclusions have been largely discredited by subsequent research.