Sub-clinical anaemia of school-children in Southern Rhodesia

Abstract
(1) A survey of the haemoglobin indices of 2,173 European and 304 Coloured school-children, resident on the plateau region of Southern Rhodesia, was completed in 1939 by Newcomer's method. Of these children, 320 Europeans (14·7 per cent.) and 70 Coloured (23 per cent.) were found to have sub-clinical anaemia. (2) A provisional normal standard of 13·49 grammes Hb per 100 c.c. of blood was adopted and a range of normality between 12 and 14·9 grammes, but it is considered that this standard is probably below that of healthy persons living under ideal conditions in this Colony. (3) The effects of age, race, parasitic infection, climate, diet and residence in a boarding hostel on the haemoglobin index have been studied and, while it is considered that all these have either a direct or indirect influence, the main factors which lower the haemoglobin index directly are (a) faulty diet, and (b) parasitic infection. The relative effects of these two can only be gauged by controlled experiment and they are both remediable. The climate is not considered to have any direct deleterious effect on the health of Europeans, and this contention seems to be supported by the fact that the physical health of the European child appears to be on the whole at least as good as in Europe, in spite of the diseases and dietetic errors common to Europe, with the additional prevalence of parasitic diseases and, it is alleged, a local, relative, dietetic deficiency in minerals.

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