MALNUTRITION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22607, 26 June 1935, Page 6

MALNUTRITION

While there is a certain amount of confused reasoning in a letter which appears in another column over the signature " Indignant," it is at least possible to agree with the writer that a passage quoted by him from a statement by. the Director of School Hygiene makes " dismal reading." It is distressing to be told that children living in the poorer crowded quarters of the cities show a lack of vitality and an absence of resistance to disease, : and that, according to the reports of school medical officers, there is a gradual and steady lowering of the standard of clothing and personal care among certain sections of the people in some areas. That the existence of the conditions which, with significant qualifications, are thus described by the school medical officers should be connected by our correspondent with the prevalence of unemployment is perfectly natural. Cause and effect would, on the face of things, seem to be plainly indicated. The statistics of malnutrition in the schools themselves, however, furnish an illustration of the danger of rushing to conclusions. The statistics are based on the results of the examination of children in the schools, and those for the past two years do not offer a strictly true comparison with those of preceding years, since, owing to the raising of the school age, an older-age group was included in the primer classes in 1933 and 1934 and the percentage of malnutrition is generally higher in the primer classes than among the older, children. The records show that the proportion of malnutrition in New Zealand was 5.64 per cent, according to the latest figures. This proportion was slightly higher than that of 1933, when it was 5.48 per cent The striking fact, however, is that these are the two lowest percentages that have been recorded since 1928, in which year a register of malnutrition was first taken. This clearly prompts the conclusion that the connection between the prevalence of unemployment and the existence of malnutrition is not so definite as our correspondent supposes. Malnutrition is not necessarily a product of insufficient feeding and inadequate clothing. Nor is it necessarily confined to the poorer homes. It occurs in the homes of well-to-do people in which it may be traced to diversions in the lives of children that deprive them of a sufficiency of the sound, restful sleep they require. In rural districts, also, malnutrition among children may be ascribed much more surely to the lack of sleep than to any other cause. The fact is that the investigation of the causes of malnutrition must.go a good deal deeper than it has so far been carried before it will be possible to determine the extent to which the evil is clue either to an insufficiency of food or an insufficiency of clothing. There are many factors, not all of them observable on the surface, that enter into the consideration. The heart, however, of the community will certainly be touched by the production of evidence that clearly links malnutrition among children with the prevalence of unemployment. No person with human sympathy would willingly see children suffer, and no effort that was directed to the object of meeting all their reasonable wants would fail from the lack of liberal assistance.