Sickness Survey

Surgeon General Thomas Parran was unduly grave as he broke ground for a new group of U. S. Public Health Service re-search buildings near Washington fortnight ago. No one in the nation knew better than he the necessity of hurrying the construction and use of the establishment. For in his Washington office lay a heap of data, accumulated by inquiring

WPA workers, showing how sick the people of the U. S. actually are. From the health and economic records of 2,660,000 individuals living in every part of the U. S. and every type of community, of every economic level of society and every age group, Surgeon General Parran prepared a preliminary report, which he communicated last week to State and local health officers for their information & guidance. Presuming as he did that the 130,000,000 inhabitants of the U. S. went through just what the 2,660,000 did, then:

P: Every day one out of 20 people is too sick to go to school or work, or attend his customary activities.

P: Every man, woman and child (on the average) in the nation suffers ten days of incapacity annually.

P: The average youngster is sick in bed seven days of the year, the average oldster 35 days.

P: Two million five hundred thousand people (42% of the 6,000,000 sick every day) suffer from chronic diseases--heart disease, hardening of the arteries, rheumatism, nervous diseases.

P: Sixty-five thousand people are totally deaf; 75,000 more are deaf & dumb; 200,000 lack a hand, arm, foot or leg; 300,000 have permanent spinal injuries; 500,000 are blind; 1,000,000 more are permanent cripples.

P: Two persons on the Relief income level (less than $1,000 yearly income for the entire family) are disabled for one week or longer for every one person better off economically.

P: Only one in 250 family heads in the income group of more than $2,000 yearly cannot seek work because of chronic disability. In Relief families one in every 20 family heads is disabled.

P: Relief and low-income families are sick longer as well as more often than better-financed families. They call doctors less often. But the poor, especially in big cities, get to stay in hospitals longer than their better-off neighbors.

Concluded Dr. Parran: "It is apparent that inadequate diet, poor housing, the hazards of occupation and the instability of the labor market definitely create immediate health problems."

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