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'Sickness is a baffling matter'. A reply to James C. Riley
1Department of Geography, University of Liverpool, UK.
Summary
This study defends methodology for estimating sickness duration among English medical professionals in the 1860s. It critiques claims of rising morbidity, highlighting limitations of friendly society surveys for tracking health trends.
Area of Science:
- Medical History
- Social History
- Epidemiology
Background:
- This paper responds to critiques of prior research on sickness duration within the English medical profession during the 1860s.
- It defends the assumptions used to estimate work-preventing sickness in the original study, 'Physician, heal thyself'.
Discussion:
- The paper critically examines James C. Riley's argument that morbidity increased from the 1860s to the 1890s, despite declining mortality.
- It challenges the reliance on friendly society surveys for assessing morbidity trends, citing their inherent limitations.
- The discussion reinforces historical warnings about using such data for age-specific morbidity analysis.
Key Insights:
- New estimates for the average duration of work-preventing sickness among medical professionals are presented.
- The study provides a robust defense of the methodology used to estimate sickness duration in historical medical populations.
- Significant methodological concerns are raised regarding the interpretation of friendly society data for historical morbidity trends.
Outlook:
- Further research is needed to refine methods for estimating historical morbidity, particularly for occupational groups.
- The findings underscore the importance of critically evaluating data sources in medical and social history.
- Future studies should consider alternative data sets to corroborate or challenge findings based on friendly society records.