Résumé :
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How can handicap and disability be prevented ? Margaret and Arthur Wynn discuss cerebral palsy, deafness, epilepsy, mental subnormality and other defects which originate before birth, in the perinatal period and in early childhood. They present a great range of statistical and international comparative evidence to show that much of this handicap can be prevented by the application of existing knowledge. A number of contries have national programmes to prevent handicap resulting from the hazards of human reproduction. Some types of handicap for example spinabifida can be reduced substantially only by improving the health of women. The Wynns use both the Registrar General's occupational mortality tables and WHO statistics to show th indivisibility of the health of women and their babies. In the developed world the highest death rates for women under 65 from both cancer and heart disease are among English-speaking women who also have the highest incidence of congenital malformations among their babies. Scottish women have the highest risk of bearing congenitally malformed children in the 20 countries considered. Within England and Wales it is shown that infant mortality is closely related with maternal death rates from heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Of the 17 occupational groups into which the population is divided, members of the Armed Forces and their wives are found to have the highest death rates, notably from cancer. (...).
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