Influenza : $b An epidemiologic studyVaughan, Warren T. (Warren Taylor)
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Influenza : $b An epidemiologic study
Vaughan, Warren T. (Warren Taylor)
Influenza
_Effect of overcrowding._—The family or household forms a social unit in
which human intercourse is very close, and in which the opportunities
for contact infection either direct or indirect are manifold. In
addition to all of the opportunities which each individual has for
contracting the disease outside of the family every case in the family
exposes every other member many times during the day. One of the first
questions arising in a study of the disease in the family is, therefore,
whether the size of the family in and of itself exerts any predisposing
influence on the total incidence in any one family. Are large families
more likely to have a greater percentage of cases than small families?
We have endeavored to answer this question by grouping together all
families containing only one individual, all of those with two, three,
four, etc., and determining the percentage of individuals contracting
influenza in each of the groups. The standard for comparison is the
percentage of the total 10,000 who contracted the disease in either
year, or in both. 19.71 per cent. of all persons canvassed contracted
influenza in 1918–19. Reference to Table IV shows that of persons living
in families of one, 17.95 per cent. developed the disease; of those in
families of two, 18.46 per cent.; in families of three, 19.96 per cent.;
in families of four, 20.10 per cent.; and in families of from five to
seven, between 22 and 23 per cent. Families of over seven all showed
lower, but varying incidence of the disease. As is seen by the table,
they comprise only a small number of families.
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