MALNUTRITION

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 61, 13 March 1934, Page 13

MALNUTRITION

AMONG SCHOOLCHILDREN

NO EVIDENT INCREASE

The question of the existence of malnutrition amongst primary school children owing to the economic depres-. sion was discussed last evening at a meeting of the Wellington School Committees' and Educational Federation. The secretary (Mr. N. A. Ingram) reported that only eight returns had been received from the school committees to which, the following request had been sent: —"Can you give any indication, by numbers only, of cases of children suffering from malnutrition in your school, due to the economic conditions prevailing, or other causes?" The consensus of opinion appeared to be that __ the returns could be, and should be, secured from the medical officers' report on visitation to the school. A report from the school medical officers for the year 1932-33, showed that the returns giving the result of the examination of primary school children for the years from 1924 to 1932 showed little variation in the percentage of subnormal nutrition noted. .Generally speaking; over the Dominion as a whole, there was no evident increase in the percentage of schoolchildren suffering from malnutrition. There was no increase of malnutrition in country districts, where food was readily available, and any necessitous case could be readily dealt with locally. Most school medical officers stated that in the cities a small percentage, of children, belonging espeeialy to primerclass age groups, showed clinical signs of malnutrition. Food was poor in quality rather than quantity; deficient in vitamins, first-class protein, and in. fat-milk; fresh eggs, butter, fresh vegetables, and meat were lacking. The chairman (Mr. F. H. Porter) said that owing to the small uumber of answers which had been read up to the present time from school committees (8 out of 60), the association could, not come to a definite conclusion on the matter; in the meantime, further replies, must be awaited. ■