A nutrition survey of pre-school children, 1967-68 : report / by the Committee on Medical Aspects of Food Policy.

  • Great Britain. Committee on Medical Aspects of Food Policy
Date:
1975
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: A nutrition survey of pre-school children, 1967-68 : report / by the Committee on Medical Aspects of Food Policy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    5. Social and Economic Characteristics of Participants in the Survey 5.1 Social class Table A4 (p 39) shows the distribution of the families in the survey into four groups according to the Registrar-General’s Social Classification based on the occupation of the husband—RG Classes I and II, IIT Non-Manual, III Manual, IV and V. Of those from whom diet records were obtained 27% were in social classes I, II and HI Non-Manual. The proportion of other respondents in those social classes was significantly lower (18%) and there was, therefore, a bias in recording the diet in favour of the higher social classes. The family size and social class relationships are interesting. Approximately half the families of each size in the dietary survey were in class IIJ Manual, but a greater proportion of the larger families were in classes IV and V (28% of those with 4 or more children against 18% of those with 1 or 2 children). Conversely, a greater pro- portion of the smaller families were in classes I, II and HI Non-Manual (31 % against 22%). The pattern was similar among those from whom social informa- tion only was obtained—32°% of the larger families and 26% of the smaller families were in classes IV and V; 26% of the smaller families and 13% of the larger families were in classes I, I] and II Non-Manual. 5.2 Employment of the mother Altogether 166 (12.6 %) of the mothers were in paid employment, the proportion rising, as might be expected, with the age of the child. In families with 1 or 2 children under 15 years of age, the number of working mothers rose to 17.2%. This is not necessarily a true index of the proportion of mothers of young children going out to work, since working may well have been a reason for non-response or failure by the interviewer to make contact. As might be expected, a larger proportion (20.5°%) of the mothers who gave social information but not diet records were employed. 5.3. Income 5.3.1 Respondents were asked to state the usual gross weekly income of the child’s father or, if there was no father, of the mother. As in the National Food Survey of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, if this gross weekly income was less than £11 and another member of the household had a larger income, the latter was substituted. The distribution of incomes in family size groups is shown in Table A5 (p 40), and comparable figures from the National Food Survey, 1967 and 1968 (Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and