asked the Minister for Health if he will state the number of children inspected by medical officers of health for 1947 and the number found to be suffering from malnutrition.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Malnutrition in Children.
The total number of children examined in 1947 in the school medical services was 112,284. The number of children reported by chief medical officers as suffering from malnutrition was 2,919.
Medical officers employ a variety of definitions, the main criterion being subjective estimation by the officers concerned as regards the nutritional status of the children examined, and children are classified according to different categories with different meanings. Apart from children classed as suffering from malnutrition, small numbers of other children were classed as being undernourished or of poor nutrition, fair nutrition, sub-nutrition or defective nutrition and below average nutrition.
Under the nutrition survey carried out under the direction of my Department an examination of numbers of school-children was made by an officer specially trained to observe nutritional defects. The results of this examination are not yet available.