Ercel S. Eppright

Diet and Nutritional Status of Iowa School Children

In Iowa an effort has been made to ascertain the nutrient intake of school children on a state-wide basis and to identify relationships of the diet to the nutritional status of the children. A state-wide sample of 61 schools was drawn from a universe consisting of most types of Iowa schools. Within the schools a random sample of approximately 1,200 children was chosen. Figure 1 and Table 1 show the distribution of the schools and of the children. Some of the results of this study have been reported.14 Portions of the study relating to the 9-, 10-, and 11-year-old children were conducted cooperatively with the Ohio and Kansas Agricultural Experiment Stations.5 Under the supervision of a qualified dietitian seven-day dietary records were kept by the children or their mothers. Five body measurements were made of each child and samples of finger-prick blood were taken for the determination of hemoglobin. For approximately 700 children in cities and small towns, determinations were made of the serum concentrations of ascorbic acid, caro-