いわめる虚弱児童.生徒の実態とそ保健体育指導に関する衛生学的研究（I）

第4報　総括並びに結論

抄録

From November in 1956 to March in 1967, in order to grasp the actual condition of the so-called physically weak children and pupils and to inquire into the causes, I questioned all the institutions for weak children in the whole country on their birth and growth, home circumstances and physique. 9 of them answered my questionnaire, in which there are 1, 174 children (733 boys and 441 girls), whose average age is 6.82%±2.85 years (boys, 6.96±2.57; girls, 6.56±2.68). I mentioned the results of this investigation in Volume I (from Part 1 to Part 3). In this part I have generalized them, with the following results. 1. Home circumstances.It is not too much to say that healthy children are born of healthy mothers. From this point of view, healthy mothers are very few (65.6%). In delivery, 11.2% of the children are. difficult or abnormal and 15.8% are premature. Their parents are in narrow circumstances (57.4% are in the lowest class) and their interest in the health of children is . not great (37.8 are quite indifferent). As to lactation, 35.5% of them were fed on mother's milk, 16.8% on artificial milk and 47.7% on mixed milk. 2. Places of birth.90.6% of them were born in their own homes, and 2.4% in institutions (hospitals, clinics and maternity homes). 48.7% of their places of birth are cities, 23.3% are towns, 20.1% are villages and 8.0% are unknown. 3. Various, conditions centering around their weight at birth. They have many brothers (the average number of brothers is 2.46 the highest is 7 and the lowest is 1). 11.5% of them are eldest children, 51.7% are youngest children, and 36.8% are intermediate ones. In dividing the number of brothers into three classes, I exclude one and two brothers. The age of their parents at their birth is 31.94±6.85 years for fathers and 27.89±5.92 years for mothers. This is insignificant in statistics, but the older mothers are, the heavier children weight at birth (r= 0.016 for boys, r=0.029 for girls).The birth rate of premature infants is as high as 17.5% (13.5%, or boys, 24.0% for girls). Many of those who are inferior in weight at birth were born in cities, .especially in commercial and industrial disrticts or amusement centers. Children with four brothers are heaviest in weight (3.11kg±0.41 for boys, 2.93kg for girls), while children with two brothers for boys (2.78kg±0.45), and one brather for girls (2.82kg±0.60) are lightest. The latter's weight at birth is lighter then that of the former by about 0.1kg (2.991kg±0.438 for boys, 2.920kg±0.444 for girls). 4. Conditions of growth. 27.4% of the children had been housed in other institutions before they entered these institutions. They began to syeak fifteen months after birth and to walk seventeen months after. Their intelligence quotient (Tanaka's B form) is 90.5, and generally they are slow in developing intellectual faculties. The tuberculin test proved positive for 54.3%. (negative for 5.9%). 5. Physical features at entrance and the growth of . them after entrance.Their height, weight girth of the chest are about one year below the national average. Especially, they are inferior in height and weight, but one year after entrance, the rate of increase is more than two-thirds higher than the national average of all the items. 6. The classification of the reasons for entrance.The 610 reasons for entrance may be classified into three groups : undergrowth and undernourishment (41.6%), diseases (25.6%), and suspected tuberculosis (15.1%). They form the majority of the reasons (82.3%). From the above-mentioned results the physical weakness. of children arises from the mother's body. I can safely say that the respect and protection of motherhood and the prope education and management of children after entrance will enable them, to regain their physical and mental health.