COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF THE PREVALENCE OF MAXILLARY SINUSITIS IN LATER MEDIEVAL URBAN AND RURAL POPULATIONS IN NORTHERN ENGLAND

Six hundred sixty-three Medieval individuals from Wharram Percy, a rur al settlement in the Yorkshire Welds, and 1,042 individuals from St. H elen-on-the-Walls, a poor parish in the Medieval city of York, were ex amined in order to test the hypothesis that maxillary sinusitis would be more prevalent in an urban population due to social and environment al conditions characteristic of an industrialized settlement. The resu lts showed that the individuals from St. Helen-on-the-Walls, living in the urban environment, had a greater prevalence of maxillary sinusiti s than the rural population; 39% (106) of the individuals from Wharram Percy had evidence of sinusitis compared to 55% (134) of the individu als from St. Helen-on-the-Walls. It is suggested that this pattern may be attributed to occupation and industrial air pollution in the Medie val city of York. (C) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.