Hæmoglobin Levels in Adolescent Schoolchildren

INTRODUCrION IT has been suggested that lack of interest in school work, disinclination to study, and poor educational attainment may be sometimes associated with low haxmoglobin levels. This study was primarily designed to test the hypothesis that there is no difference in the mean hamoglobin levels between girls of high and low educational attainment, i.e., girls in the highest and lowest educational streams, in two Belfast schools. An opportunity of estimating the hamoglobin levels of a group of boys of similar age was also taken and some comparisons have been made between these values and those of the girls. Earlier work relevant to the h;moglobin levels of schoolchildren (for example, Medical Research Council, 1945; Davidson, Fullerton, and Campbell, 1935; Fysh, 1950) suggested that such factors as age, diet, and family size influenced h:moglobin levels. The haemoglobin level during early childhood was found to be the same in each sex, but from adolescence onwards males had a higher value; this difference was most marked during the reproductive period (Medical Research Council, 1945). It is possible that girls who have attained the menarche have different hamoglobin levels to those who have not. Therefore, it is essential that these factors be taken into account when comparing different educational streams if the relationship between educational attainment and hemoglobin level is to be assessed. In this study appropriate allowances were made for differences in age and family size between compared groups, but no satisfactory method could be devised, with the resources available, to take dietary differences into account. Although some factors associated with menstruation were considered, the data available were too unreliable to use, as girls could not always remember exactly when menstruation had first started.