Evening star., 1955-03-02
Third Of Population
Has Most of illnesses
Accident-Sickness Prone to
Follow Consistent Puttern
By Thomos R. Henry

One-third Of the population suffers
three-fourths Of the illnesses.
They are the "sickness-prone" people.
The situation holds for al sorts Of
disease from colds to malignant cancer
and even to accidents.
This is the substance Of O report
summarized by the q. s. Public Health
Service by Drs. Lawrence e. Hinckle
and Norman Plummer Of Cornell based
on q study Of industrial employes-an
approximately equal number Of men
and women-of the same age, social
status. sanitary surroundings and
general physical condition.
A third of them. they found. ac-
counted not only for three-fourths Of
the illnesses but for four-fifths Of the
days Of absence from work due to
sickness.
Frequent Illness.
The consistent pattern was that Of
frequent minor illnesses interspersed
with major episodes which require
prolonged treatment. The minor ILL
nesses were Of all sorts, scattered
through all organs Of the body. The
major illnesses tended to occur most
frequently In those organs most fire.
quently affected, in each individual, by
the minor ones.
'The individuals who had the greatest
number Of bodily illnesses and acci-
dents" says the report. "also had the
greatest number Of disorders Of feeling,
thought and behavior. BY contrast,
another one-third Of each group had
less than per cent either Of illness
episodes or days Of disability. Members
of this we'll group had few scattered
minor illnesses in several organ sys-
TENS and major illnesses after q long
period of well-being were the exception
rather than the rule"
The data, the two doctors report.
lends no support to the concept that
one inferior organ system, such as weak
lungs or bad heart, Is the main cause
OF Ill health among the frequently sick.
They believe that persons in the sick"
group show disturbance Of function
OF the whole organism and that leach
illness represents an isolated manifes-
tat1on Of total and continuing pattern
of reaction"
Psychological Adjustment.
Good or poor health, they stated, ..is
most clearly correlated to the indi.
vidual's reaction to his psychological
environment in adult life. All the i'll
men and women studied medically had
difficulty in meeting the demands of
their special life situation and all the
well people had adaptive capacities
uniquely suited to their life situations.
"A number of the ill persons who
had been healthy in childhood and had
grown up in benign environment be-
gan to develop illnesses when they were
inadvertently precipitated into stress
producing life situations that were not
OF their own making"
There is no contention that the sick
nesses are imaginary. Definite organic
causes can be found just as frequently
in the sick" as in the "well" group.
So far as present knowledge is con-
cerned there is very little to be done
about 1t and the physician cannot dis
miss his patients cynically But, the
Cornell doctors point out, the findings
point to the need of studying the patient
himself as much as the specific symp-
toms of disease. The sickness may be
not only malfunctioning OF some
particular organ of the body but of the
whole physical-mental system Of the
patient.