Were people healthier in 1936?

[Scarlett]

I have nobody to ask! I was discussing this with my friend. I think that people especially children were healthier back then- no TV, computer games, no processed food etc. What do you think?

[sandyRoe]

Rickets, TB, and general malnutrition were things endured by many adults and children. I can't see how they would have been healthier than now.

[jno]

yes, but much more illness! No NHS for a start.

Life expectancy then was about 60, a bit more for women.

[Prudie]

What do you mean by healthier? In 1936 weren't they at far greater risk of polio, diptheria, ricketts, TB etc etc

[yogasun]

Sandy beat me to it. Also they would have often died of diptheria, whooping cough, scarlet fever, etc.

[jno]

oh, and of course much greater chance of bing killed in war, even if you were at home in the UK. That's not strictly 'health', I know, but it dure made a difference.

[Mosaic]

No, can't agree. Kids were still dying of diphtheria, measles, mumps, smallpox. If you had space, fresh air and food you were fine but thousands lacked all or one of those essentials.
Access to doctors, medicine and hospitals was paid for - so the less well off did without.
Libraries had limited opening hours so it was harder to expand the mind at the click of a button.
I love studying the past but I wouldn't want to go back there even for a holiday.

[Mosaic]

Blimey, look at the times on these answers!

[coccinelle]

It all depends on the class of people. Upper classes and middle classes probably as they were fed on home baking and cooking and local meat and vegetables but I don't think the diet of the working classes was healthier as it wasn't very varied. Some kids lived on bread and dripping.

[sandyRoe]

Smoking was considered good for you. There was also lots of air pollution from all the coal fires in use.
Orwell's 'The Road to Wigan Pier', gives a flavour of life for poorer people in those times.

[emmie]

No, too many childhood illnesses. TB carried off many a child and adult i might add
whooping cough, measles, rubella, polio, not least poverty and bad working conditions, don't forget many went to work very early on in life.

[naomi24]

Definitely not healthier, but I think they may have been more content without the trappings and pressures of modern society.

[emmie]

not if they had to work they weren't. Middle to upper class children were well fed most likely, but your average working class child perhaps not.

[Mosaic]

I've heard older people round here describe it similarly Naomi - nobody had anything worth nicking so it was pointless locking your doors.
I don't know about contentment though - I guess once films and magazines gave a glimpse of the other half, being happy with your lot might have worn a bit thin.

[Mosaic]

Now Scarlett if you wrote 1963, I think you'd be onto something.

[naomi24]

I was thinking more of fashion, etc. It wasn't a consideration for kids then.

[emmie]

my grandad died young, in his late 30's, and my ma nearly went too from TB, so it wasn't a good time for many.

[sandyRoe]

My old mum used to buy a pigs head to feed us all. "Leave the eyes in," she'd say to the pork butcher. "It has to see us through the week."
This was a bit later than the OP mentioned, in the early 50s.

[emmie]

sandy, the first time i saw ones of those, pigs head in a pot i nearly fainted.

[ladybirder]

I remember walking through a churchyard high up in the Yorkshire Dales and reading the headstones and it was heartbreaking. Many children from the same family dead aged from a few weeks/months upwards and this was repeated throughout. Very sad.

[boxtops]

I agree with what the others have said - no NHS - you had to pay the doctor, many more communicable diseases, including TB, scarlet fever, diphtheria, polio. Agreed that people were fitter but it was from necessity not choice - no vacuum cleaners yet, you still mangled your clothes and walked to the shops every day.