Search

Objective: the anthropometric data of the Instituto de Orientación Profesional (Institute of Vocational Guidance) (IOP) is introduced and analysed. The IOP during its activity years (1917- 1935) advised youngsters of the city (mainly 13-19 y.) in their job seeking process., Material and Methods: the statistical information provided by IOP has been analysed through two types of sources. One, secondary, based on statistics published in a monograph in the year 1936. Other, primary, from 305 individual cards found in the archives. Tables of growth of child and young populations of Spain as a model have been applied in order to assess the nutritional condition of the young attending the IOP., Results: social and residential differences reflected in heights and weights of young applicants for employment (15-19 y.). 6.5 cm height and 4.5 kg weight as average between Wealthy and Middle and Working Class. Between 2 and 3 cm and 2 and 4 kg from residents in Ensanche compared to Casco Antiguo and Barriadas. Levels of moderate malnutrition would be of 17% and severe malnutrition between 3% and 5% in young population (13-16 y.) As determinant factor of height and weight, dilution hypothesis suggest the size of sibling. Regression results show a negative effect of this variable of 0.35 cm on height and 0.41 Kg on weight., Conclusions: anthropometrical and nutritional outputs from the IOP's young population revealed the consequences of social and spatial segregation and current Malthusian tensions in Barcelona in the first third of the 20th century.

Introduction: the stage of autarky and early years of developmentalism was one of the periods in the contemporary history of Spain when inequalities in food and nutrition became more pronounced., Objectives: to examine malnutrition among the rural population (municipalities with fewer than 2000 inhabitants), including territorial inequalities and the delayed onset of a rural food and nutrition transition., Methods: we analysed the rural food and nutrition surveys carried out by the General Commission for Supplies and Transport (Spanish initials: CAT) and the Food and Nutrition Education Programme (Spanish initials: EDALNU) between 1964 and 1972., Results: the rural population presented a deficit of animal proteins, calcium and vitamins A and B2, due to scant consumption of protective foods. Andalucía and inland Spain were the regions with the highest percentage of people whose diet did not meet nutritional requirements. These deficiencies were not only responsible for the prevalence of caries and skin, mucous membrane and eye lesions, but were also behind delayed growth (height and weight). This was not the result so much of poverty as of the persistence of poor eating habits., Conclusions: besides evidencing the delayed onset of a food and nutritional transition in the Spanish rural population, our findings document policies that sought to encourage the consumption of protective foods in rural areas and empower the population with regard to food and nutrition.

Objetivo: analizar la geografía del estado nutricional en España y su evolución entre mediados del siglo xixy comienzos del siglo xx, etapa previa a la transición nutricional con alta prevalencia de malnutrición.Métodos: se utilizan datos antropométricos agregados (promedios provinciales de estatura) del reclutamiento militar en 1858 y 1913, así como promedios provinciales de estatura y peso procedentes de una revisión realizada entre 119.571 soldados en 1903-1906. Con estos datos se elaboran cartografía y estadísticos descriptivos.Resultados: los parámetros antropométricos de los españoles se situaban entre los valores de complexión más bajos de Europa antes de la transición nutricional. Entre 1858 y 1913, la altura media creció solo 1,43 cm. En ese periodo hubo cambios significativos en la geografía antropométrica marcados por la configuración de una polaridad nutricional a las puertas de la I Guerra Mundial: las provincias del centro y del sur de país exhiben mayor incidencia de la malnutrición crónica que las provincias del arco Noreste, que disfrutan de ventaja relativa en términos nutricionales.Conclusión:las desigualdades territoriales que configuraron una geografía polarizada del estado nutricional en España pueden asociarse en parte a los cambios ambientales del periodo, caracterizados por el inicio de la modernización y la industrialización y, asimismo, por la privación derivada de las crisis agrarias, las enfermedades y el relativo atraso tecnológico. Se destaca la relevancia de la historia antropométrica para el estudio de los niveles de vida en poblaciones del pasado y del proceso de transición nutricional.

The Spanish nutritional and food transition was consolidated over the course of the twentieth century. In the pre-transition stage, a renewed interest emerged in the deficiencies presented by children''s diets, and food and nutritional education was considered the best course of action to correct them. The aim of this study was to analyse the changes over time and regional differences in the nutritional status of Spanish schoolchildren in rural areas in the 1950s and 1970s, using their height as an anthropometric parameter. The results revealed the existence of two categories at the beginning of the 1960s: a first group in which the height of children from the Cantabrian coast, the Levante, Catalonia and the Balea - ric Islands was similar to that of well-nourished children, and a second group from the regions of Andalusia, Extremadura and Galicia, who were not as tall. Between 1954 and 1977, the height of well-nourished children rose, particularly between 1954 and the first half of the 1960s. There was also a significant increase in the height of children attending national schools in rural areas, and the regional differences that had existed at the beginning of the 1960s disappeared. These advances were undoubtedly influenced both by the milk supplement and the food and nutritional education activities carried out within the framework of the Spanish Diet and Nutrition Education programme (EDALNU)., (Copyright AULA MEDICA EDICIONES 2014. Published by AULA MEDICA. All rights reserved.)