MALNUTRITION

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 127, 25 November 1935, Page 12

MALNUTRITION

OPINION CHALLENGED

FACTS AND FIGURES

On the subject of malnutrition among school children Mr. L. J. McDonald, a member of the Wellington Education Board, who has taken a leading, part in consideration of the matter, made the following statement to "The Post" today in reply to published remarks attributed to Dr. Elizabeth Gurih:—

"The public statement by Dr.- Elizabeth Gunn that the incidence of malnutrition among school children- is very small, and that ■■ the ■malnutrition which does exist is due not to: insufficient food but to improper feeding,, rests upon no better evidence than her mere assertion and reiteration. Not only is the statement'unsupported, byreliable evidence but it flagrantly ignores the following established facts relating to this position. / ;

"It is impossible for an estimated 20,000 children of relief .workers during recent years to be properly nounsned when the family income has amount, ed to 3s to 4s per head per week, exclusive of rent, plus what few crumbs of charity were available to them. Neither is it likely that children could be properly nourished when the family income has been inadequate to provide sufficient and proper food for the parents, as is admitted by Dn Gunn. Here, too, is the cause of the improper feeding upon which she dwells.' How is it possible' to provide proper fopd without the necessary income? ■

"The official classification of malnutrition in the Wellington education district is 15.18 per cent., showing ;aa increase in 1934-35 of 2.62 per cent, over the previous year.

"The annual reports of the.district medical officers in England definitely stress the heavy disease incidence and infant mortality rate, in those districts where people are living in impoverished circumstances, as compared witli more prosperous areas. .

"The report of the health officer of Wellington City for 1934-35 shows an increase of more than 30 per cent, as compared with 1933-34, while a glance at the reports of recent years will show that this increase is continuous.

"The incidence of this increase in the ratio varies as much as almost nine in the poorer suburbs to one in the more prosperous ones.

"In the case of all notifiable diseases the incidence ratio is as much as eight times higher in the poorer localities than 'it is in the more prosperous suburbs.

"An overwhelming majority of the patients attending the Otaki Health. Camp are from schools situated in districts where people are on the lowest income levels.

"Dr. Gibbs, president of the Health Camp Association, has stated that he and his committee who are dealing with malnutrition every day know and can affirm that malnutrition as a result of insufficient food is a real condition in the case of many children in our midst today. Dr. Gibbs also has expressed the opinion that ample food to satisfy the child's natural appetite

is the first line of defence against tuberculosis. The figures quoted above

strongly support his conclusion. Investigations and experiments carried out in England also endorse his opinion, that adequate living, conditions and food would entirely stamp out this scourge. "Dr. Barraclough, of Auckland, has said that 80 per cent, of the cases of children he has attended at the free medical clinic have been due, either as a basic or seriously complicating character, to inanition (starvation) due to insufficient food either in quantity or quality. "Without in any way attempting t» combat these facts Dr. Gunn continue* to assert that there is no malnutrition due to undernourishment attributable to low incomes and consequent low* living standards. The fact that th« examinations carried out-by Dr. Guna leave her so satined with existing conditions is probably best explained by the statement by the Director General of Health as follows:—'Mai .nutrition is a vague term, and thf standard of what is normal nutritioj varies with every examiner.' In thii he is supported by Sir George Ne\v» man, Chief Medical Officer of th* Ministry of Health, England, .who, m 1933 said the assessment of the stat<* of nutrition by clinical examination ia beset with many difficulties, becausa this method of evaluation involves rar liance not on objective data but o* subjective impressions and on the pt»

sonal competence of the investigator. The standards of the examiner as.well as the results which he obtains are mental concepts and therefore incapable of precise objective measurement."