London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Croydon 1937
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Croydon]
This page requires JavaScript
269
That the proper care of the teeth before the school age is reached
would lead to much less attention being necessary during school age
is emphasised in the dental section of the report.
Table VII.
| Condition. | Entrants. | Intermediate. | Leavers. | Other Ages. | All Groups. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boys | Girls | Boys | Girls | Boys | Girls | Boys | Girls | Boy; | Girls | |
| Cleanliness: | ||||||||||
| (Percentage Clean) | ||||||||||
| Head | 99.9 | 98.7 | 99.6 | 98.3 | 99.3 | 98.3 | 97.6 | 100.0 | 99.6 | 98.5 |
| Body | 99.9 | 99.7 | 99.7 | 99.5 | 99.2 | 99.5 | 100.0 | 99.2 | 99.7 | 99.6 |
| Clothing (satisfactory) | 99.9 | 99.9 | 99.5 | 99.5 | 99.5 | 98.9 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 99.7 | 99.5 |
| Footgear (satisfactory) | 99.9 | 100.0 | 99.5 | 99.2 | 99.4 | 98.8 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 99.7 | 99.4 |
| Nutrition (normal) | 85.4 | 83.9 | 91.5 | 88.8 | 91.4 | 91.5 | 91.2 | 95.8 | 89.0 | 87.8 |
| Defects: | ||||||||||
| Circulatory System | 8.3 | 8.4 | 14.7 | 16.1 | 12.4 | 16.4 | 16.8 | 24.2 | 11.5 | ' 13.4 |
| Pulmonary System | 4.9 | 3.0 | 1.3 | 1.7 | 2.7 | 1.5 | 4.0 | 0.8 | 3.2 | ! 2.1 |
| Skin Disease | 1.5 | 1.1 | 2.2 | 3.0 | 1.7 | 2.6 | 4.0 | ... | 1.8 | 2.1 |
| Defects of Nose and Throat | 36.8 | 37.8 | 37.0 | 41.5 | 24.3 | 24.4 | 42.4 | 32.5 | 33.6 | 35.3 |
| Enlarged Cervical Glands | 17.1 | 11.0 | 26.3 | 21.8 | 18.0 | 10.9 | 14.8 | 18.3 | 20.3 | 14.6 |
| External Eye Disease | 0.9 | 1.4 | 2.0 | 1.4 | 1.7 | 1.3 | 2.4 | 1.7 | 1.5 | 1.4 |
| Defective Vision | 0.2 | 0.3 | 7.7 | 8.8 | 12.1 | 14.3 | 11.2 | 10.0 | 6.0 | 7.0 |
| Defective Hearing | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 0.6 | ... | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.4 |
| Speech Defects | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.8 | 0.3 | ... | ... | 0.5 | 0.3 |
| Dental Disease (more than four decayed) | 24.0 | 23.8 | 10.9 | 12.4 | 5.5 | 6.6 | 15.2 | 10.8 | 14.9 | 15.3 |
| Dull and Backward | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 1.6 | 1.1 | 2.4 | 0.8 | 1.1 | 0.7 |
The above Table gives in a concise form the findings at Routine
Medical Inspections.
Defects of the nose and throat are once again the commonest
defects found.
For nutrition, the Entrant group (aged 5) gave the worst
figures, whilst as a group the Leavers (12—13 years) showed the
best findings. Taking all the groups examined subnormal nutrition
was recorded in 11.6 per cent, of the children as contrasted with
7.9 per cent, in 1936.
Enlarged cervical glands were recorded most often in the Intermediate
group in both sexes. There is a close relationship between
enlarged cervical glands and unhealthy conditions of the nose and
throat. In themselves simple enlarged neck glands are of no great
moment, but they serve as pointers to unhealthy conditions elsewhere,
and may become the nidus of Tubercular infection.