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Show Death Rate In Timpanogos ! Stake Light i By Dr. Francis W. Kirkham Recently for the first time In my life, I looked down on Utah valley from Mount Timpanogos. As I viewed the valley, the lake, the farms, the beauty and the grandeur of the scene I exclaimed, "How blessed we the people who live in this valley of peace." During the past year, I made a comparative study of the death rate among Latter-day Saints in L. D. S. stakes, with the death rate in Utah and in the United States. There is little difference between these rates for ages 5 to 15, but the rate for Latter-day children under five years is considerably lower than for the United States. Between ages 15 to 25, the L. D. S. rate is lower than for Utah as a whole and for the United States a very marked mark-ed difference in favor of the Latter-day Latter-day Saints appears in ages 25 to 45, and 45 to 65. Here it would seem the habits of healthful living we have been taught during the past 100 years help give us an expectancy of life at least two-thirds longer than for the country as a whole. Because of a great personal interest in-terest in these facts, I have recently obtained the number of deaths by age groups for all L. D. S. stakes in Utah for the past four years. For all church stakes in Utah, these rates follow, compared with the rate in Timpanogos stake. The church rate appears first. Under 5 years, 11.53 per thousand for the church in Utah, for Timpanogos stake 1095, ages 5 to 10 1.78, compared with 3.47, ages 10 to 15 1.98 compared with 2.08, ages 15 to 25 2.98,compared with 3.14, and ages 45 to 65, 11.47 compared com-pared with 9.76 in Timpanogos stake. If we average all these rates we find the result to be 5.59 average for the church as a whole in Utah, and 5.53 for Timpanogos stake. Because four years is a short period of time to determine a death rate among as small a group as 4110, the average population in Timpanogos stake for the past four years, these rates should not be too closely compared. . But one thing is certain, the death rate for ages from 25 to 65, the productive pro-ductive time of life is decidedly lower in Timpanogos stake than for the country as a whole. I have often reflected, why do we not take advantoge of this fact for our own benefit. It would be very interesting to know the death rate among our people peo-ple of the non users of tobacco and alcoholic beverages as compared to those who indulge in these narcotics. The new course of study, for the M. I. A. 1937 quotes a study of death rates in 43 life insurance companies in the United States and Canada which shows a mortality rate 86 per cent higher for persons who used one glass of whiskey or two glasses of beer a day as compared to those persons who were total abstainers. |