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56
A number of head teachers expressed disappointment that they
were not allowed to examine the completed questionnaires. No
practical difficulties were experienced in the distribution and
return of the questionnaires.
2. Completion of the Questionnaires. A total of 62 questionnaires
were not returned amongst 1,429 which were distributed.
This represents 2.5% of the questionnaires distributed at the
eight year old inspection and 7% of those given to the parents
of older children. 10 questionnaires in the younger group were
too incomplete to be of value and 12 questionnaires were inadequate
at the 11 year old inspection. This means that approximately
3.5% of parents of younger children and 9.4% of parents
of older children failed to co-operate in the experiment.
Amongst tne questionnaires returned, the degree of completion
reached a very high standard. Over 95% of parents gave details
of previous medical history, name of family doctor etc. Parental
occupation was reported in 94% of returned questionnaires. At
the eight year old inspections these figures were even higher.
Most parents completed the questions about current symptoms:
Again the results were slightly better at the younger inspection
and the physical symptoms were 1% better completed than
the mental and emotional ones. This just reaches the level of
statistical significance but it should be noted that even mental
symptoms were still completed in over 96% of returned questionnaires.
3. Selection. It had been anticipated that questionnaires
would divide themselves simply into children with symptoms and
those without. It had been hoped that the former would represent
a very small minority. In fact some 24% of children due
for inspection showed at least one symptom on the questionnaire.
Moreover certain symptoms were regarded as absolute indications
for selection and all those who fail to return questionnaires
and those who return incomplete ones would have to be examined
if a selective type inspection was introduced in Croydon.
Amongst the parents of eight year old children, 22% specifically
requested a school medical inspection and at eleven years the
figure was 16%. Whilst these numbers are highly encouraging
support for the concept of school medical inspections, it does
mean that the number of children selected for examination in
Croydon would approach 50% and, if every positive symptom on
the questionnaire was included, would exceed this figure. This
suggests that the questionnaire is not sufficiently selective
in the identification of those most in need of a medical
examination.