Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T10:55:44.912Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

50 - Hunger, thirst, exposure, neglect

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2023

Mary Shaw
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
Bethan Thomas
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
George Davey Smith
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
Daniel Dorling
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
Get access

Summary

This is an external cause of death. Deaths from this group of causes result from insufficient food, water or other unspecified privations.

See also Map 2 All homicide, Map 5 All external deaths, and Map 81 Hypothermia.

There are clusters of high SMRs in central London, Edinburgh and the north east of Derbyshire. Scotland tends to have higher rates than the remainder of Britain. Between them, Scotland and London account for 30% of deaths from this cause.

This is not a cause of death that we would expect to see featuring in an atlas of mortality for one of the richest countries of the world at the end of the twentieth century. Yet over the period covered here, 44 people a year – almost one per week – died from hunger, thirst, exposure or neglect.

Perhaps even more sobering is the age distribution, with the age–sex bar chart showing that babies under the age of one are one of the most affected groups. Some were babies who were abandoned at or shortly after birth. Others were simply neglected by their parents.

Among older age groups, these deaths may be a result of self-neglect or neglect by others, arguably neglect by society at large.

All of these deaths are avoidable.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Grim Reaper's Road Map
An Atlas of Mortality in Britain
, pp. 102 - 103
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Print publication year: 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×