[Report 1937] / School Medical Officer of Health, North Riding of Yorkshire County Council.

  • North Riding of Yorkshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1937
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1937] / School Medical Officer of Health, North Riding of Yorkshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    8/34 (page 4)
    I'able I. in the appendix gives the numbers of children examined in the various age groups. During 1937, the total number of elementary school children examined was 12,025, compared with 12,089 for the previous year, while the total number of special inspections and re-inspections was 22,110, compared with 23,028 in 1936. The number of special inspections and re-inspections continues to fall, and this fact may be taken as a good sign, as special inspections refer to children specially brought forward by teachers, nurses, school enquiry officers, and from other sources, while re-inspections refer to children who are scheduled at previous inspections as in need of observation or treatment. FINDINGS OF MEDICAL INSPECTION. Diseases and Defects. Of the 12,025 elementary school children examined at routine medical inspections, 1,911, or 15-89 per cent, were found to be suffering from diseases or defects (not including nutrition, dental caries, or uncleanliness), which required treatment. The distribution of these 1,911 children in age groups is given below (figures for previous year are in brackets);— Group. Number of children Percentage of children found to require treatment. Inspected. Found to require treatment. Entrants 4,293 (4,096) 724 (692) 16-86 (16-89) Intermediates 3,936 (4,001) 708 (662) 17-99 (16-54) Leavers 3,796 (3,992) 479 (608) . 12-62 (15-23) Total 12,025 (12,089) 1,911 (1,962) 15-89 116-23) It is interesting to compare the Statistics of the North Riding with those for England and Wales ; the following figures give the comparison of the annual percentage of children found to require treatment during the past ten years :— Year. North Riding. England & Wales. Year. North Riding. England & Wales. 1928 22-60 20-7 1933 17-51 17-3 1929 21-71 20-8 1934 16-91 17-3 1930 21-43 20-9 1935 17-32 17-7 1931 21-25 20-0 1936 16-23 17-1 1932 20-06 18-8 1937 15-89 # * Not yet available. The percentage of children found to require treatment during 1937 showed a marked improvement compared with the previous year ; in fact, it was the lowest annual percentage yet recorded among the children attending the elementary schools of the Education Committee. Only a slight improvement was found among entrants, but there was a striking reduction in the percentage of children found to require treatment among the children leaving school. The improvement in the latter group has continued for several years, but the reduction in 1937 from 15-23% to 12-62% was so marked as to call for emphasis, although it may only be a chance variation. In contrast to the reduction in the “ entrants ” and “ leaver ” groups, the “ intermediate ” group showed a slight increase. This increase, however, was mainly associated with an increase in the number of children found to be in need of treatment for tonsils and adenoids in one particular district of the Riding. As there was a change of Assistant School Medical Officer in this district, the increase was probably due to a variation in the standard of assessment. Table II. on page 17 gives details of the diseases and defects found at routine and special medical inspections, and it shows that the 1,911 children found to require treatment at routine inspections had 2,064 defects.