London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
London County Council 1955
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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The following table shows the percentages of the principal defects (other than infestation, teeth or errors of refraction) found in pupils of all age groups inspected at general medical inspections and referred for treatment or observation, with comparable figures for 1953 and 1954.
| 1953 | 1954 | 1955 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| *Numbers examined | 186,380 | 186,774 | 176,637 |
| Percentages | |||
| Skin diseases | 1.29 | 1.39 | 1.35 |
| External eye diseases | 0.75 | 0.72 | 0.58 |
| Defective hearing | 0.64 | 0.59 | 0.59 |
| Otitis media | 0.97 | 0.74 | 0.66 |
| Enlarged tonsils and adenoids | 7.61 | 6.92 | 5.97 |
| Defective speech | 0.75 | 0.72 | 0.75 |
| Enlarged cervical glands | 1.62 | 1.45 | 1.30 |
| Heart and circulation | 0.84 | 0.87 | 0.79 |
| Lung disease (not T.B.) | 1.77 | 1.55 | 1.41 |
| Orthopaedic defects | 5.25 | 5.10 | 4.82 |
| Defects of nervous system | 0.37 | 0.37 | 0.39 |
| Psychological defects | 0.86 | 0.97 | 0.97 |
| Anaemia | 0.26 | 0.19 | 0.14 |
| Enuresis | 1.76 | 1.56 | 1.57 |
*Excluding special schools, training colleges and annual surveys in secondary schools.
Compared with 1954 a reduction in the number of enlarged tonsils and adenoids
was shown in all groups except boys in the nursery and eleven years old groups, whilst
all age groups showed lower rates for orthopaedic defects.
School doctors carrying out general medical inspections have since 1947, in accordance
with Ministry of Education requirements, classified the 'general condition' of
the pupils on a 3.point scale, 'Good', 'Fair' or 'Poor This replaced a 4-point scale
for recording the doctor's assessment of 'nutrition' as 'excellent' normal',
'sub-normal' or 'bad', Since these are descriptions of purely subjective assessments
it is clear that such a change in the system of classification meant that it would be some
years before the statistics of assessment on the new scale could be regarded as stable
enough to enable significant conclusions to be drawn from year to year comparisons :
Year
Excellent
Normal
SubNormal
and Bad
Percentages referred:
Treatment Observation Total
1946 18.0 76.4 5.6 1.3 0.7 2.0
Good Fair Poor
1948 40.8 56.0 3.2 1.0 0.5 1.5
1953 53.3 44.3 2.4 1.1 0.8 1.9
1954 57.6 40.4 2.0 1.0 0.8 1.8
1955 60.4 38.0 1.6 0.8 0.8 1.6
Pupils receiving school meals, extra milk or vitamin capsules on the recommendation of the school doctor are re-inspected each term. During 1955 the number of such re-inspections was 68,051. The classification of general condition recorded at these ' nutrition' re-inspections, with comparable figures for previous years, was as follows:
| Good | Fair | Poor | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 | 10.5 | 65.5 | 24.0 |
| 1952 | 10.7 | 68.0 | 21.3 |
| 1953 | 12.3 | 69.4 | 18.3 |
| 1954 | 13.0 | 70.1 | 16.9 |
| 1955 | 14.5 | 70.3 | 15.2 |
School meals, milk and vitamin supplements
A return to the Ministry of Education for a typical day in September, 1955, showed
that 223,413 pupils, 55.3 per cent. of the number present, were provided with school
dinners; of these, 18,687 received dinners free of charge. On the same day, 361,527
children had school milk. This cannot be expressed as a percentage of the number
present, as it included milk collected for children absent from school through sickness.
105
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