Illness in the home : a study of 25,000 illnesses in a group of Cleveland families

Abstract

An increasingly rich harvest is being reaped from longitudinal studies that were begun in times that now seem remote, but that illuminate some urgent present concerns. The present highly detailed study was begun in 1947, and embodied a 10 years' observation of the illness experience of 86 Cleveland families comprising 443 individuals. Special attention was paid by the investigators to and specific respiratory diseases, influenza, and infectious gastroenteritis; other illnesses were also recorded. A number of papers reporting data from the early years of the study are well-known to public health workers and the present volume has been long awaited. The originality of the study consisted in Dingle and his associates' concept of the family as an epidemiological unit, and addressed themselves therefrom to the themes of the amount of illness in families, and the family role in the etiology and transmission of common illnesses. They have produced a substantial report, impressive in its concept, convincing in its thoroughness, and of workmanlike solidity, yet ultimately disappointing, both because the findings are not particularly revealing, nor are the implications of the findings for family and personal health carefully explored. The families studied were intact at the point of entry, consisting of parents in their early thirties, with from one to six children, living in a single house in Unsolicited reviews cannot be accepted.