Abstracts

1951 Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health  
ABSTRACTS (This section of the JOURNAL is devoted to selected abstracts of articles on social medicine appearing in the current literature. The section will be edited in collaboration with the two abstracting Journals, Abstracts of World Medicine, and Abstracts of Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynaecology.) Common Nutritional Errors. JESSOP, W. J. E. (1950). J. med. Ass. Eire, 27, 35. 9 refs. The author emphasizes the importance of combined clinical and dietary investigations in studying the
more » ... e of dietary deficiencies in samples of a population, and gives two illustrative examples drawn from the results of the National Nutrition Survey in Ireland. The first relates to the incidence of rickets in Dublin, which was 173 per 1,000 children in 1943, and appeared to have risen since the extraction of flour had been increased from 70 to 100 per cent. A dietary survey showed also that the incidence of rickets was highest in those children whose intake of milk and vitamin D was lowest. The reduction of the extraction rate (and hence the phytate content) of flour was followed by a marked fall in the incidence of rickets and the addition of calcium phosphate to flour resulted in its further reduction to 70 per 1,000 in 1948. The second example refers to a survey of haemoglobin values and plasma protein content in adults. The incidence of anaemia and of low plasma protein values seemed surprisingly small until the clinical findings were corroborated by the results of the dietary survey, which showed that the intake of iron and of protein was adequate in all the groups studied. refs. Total body water was measured by determination of the volume of dilution of "antipyrine" (phenazone) in a group of 51 normal men (ages 24 to 96 years) and 31 women (ages 21 to 94 years). In the men the average value was 53 per cent. of the body weight (range 40 to 68 per cent.) and in the women 45 per cent. (range 30 to 53 per cent.), and the variations between individuals are considered to be correlated with variations in degree of obesity. There was no correlation between age and total body water. Determinations in a group of oedematous individuals showed a range of 58 to 71 per cent. of body weight, five values lying within the range for normal males. F. W. Chattaway
doi:10.1136/jech.5.2.123 fatcat:fwhg4sgg6nbybc2xxq4bmv6f6u