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Social History of Medicine 1999 12(3):389-406; doi:10.1093/shm/12.3.389
© 1999 by Society for the Social History of Medicine
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The Early Days of the MRC Social Medicine Research Unit

SHAUN MURPHY*

* Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol Canynge Hall, Whiteladies Road, Bristol BS8 2PR, UK. E-mail: shaun.murphy{at}bristol.ac.uk

During the 1940s, in Britain, there was great activity in the field of social medicine. This was generated by an upsurge in interest in social issues and a desire to promote occupational health research. In 1948 the Medical Research Council established a Social Medicine Research Unit. The background to the creation of the Unit and its early work are discussed. By the early 1950s, the political atmosphere had changed and criticisms of the Unit's work during the debate about continued funding in 1952 are considered. Important work on the relationship between coronary heart disease and physical exercise, and the results of a study of infant mortality, were published in the mid-1950s. A brief account of the subsequent history of the Unit, until its closure in 1975, is given.

Keywords: social medicine; Medical Research Council; epidemiology; 1940s Britain; Social Medicine Research Unit; occupational health; psychosomatic medicine; health services research; infant mortality; coronary disease; peptic ulcer


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