Premature disablement and death among post office workers.

From the economic as well as humanitarian point of view, disease which causes premature loss of life or working capacity is of importance and interest. Death before the age of 60 clearly represents a loss to the community of the breadwinner's skill and often entails the burden of the support of his family. The same is true of sickness absenteeism and chronic incapacitating disease which enforces retirement. We are familiar with the use of sickness and death rates in the study of the relations between work, age, and health; less has been written on the importance of the rate ofretirement on grounds of ill-health as an index of economic loss and the interaction of work and injury or disease. For these reasons, we here present the results of a survey of the records of disabling illness and premature death among male established staff of the General Post Office during the period 1949 to 1952 inclusive.