The Health and Development of Children

"There are approximately 12 million children aged 0-14 years in Britain today and their well-being has an importance for the country’s future which cannot be over-emphasised. Child mortality has fallen dramatically in the last 75 years, but when morbidity rather than mortality is considered the incidence of some diseases is seen to be almost as great now as at the beginning of the century. In the continuing battle for health, valuable information has come from longitudinal surveys of cohorts of British children on contemporary patterns of disease, on relationships with social class, on cross-cultural relationships and on generation-to-generation continuities in disease. Relationships have also been demonstrated between childhood disease and subsequent behaviour and educational attainment. Although progress in methods of prevention, diagnosis and treatment is promised by recent advances in clinical and laboratory techniques, the effectiveness with which the health services enable the promise to be realised is under debate.

These topics, and others, were featured in papers given at the 21st Annual Symposium of the Eugenics Society by distinguished members of the professions concerned with child health and development. The proceedings of the symposium will be of general interest and of value to all those bearing responsibilities for children’s well-being."  (From the back cover of the book)