Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T17:34:38.460Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - Socio-economic status and working capacity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2010

Get access

Summary

Socio-economic status can have an important influence upon the potential and the realized working capacity of a community through the interaction of such factors as the quantity and quality of available nutrients, family size and habits of child care, the prevalence of disease, and patterns of habitual activity.

Nutrition and physical working capacity

A low total caloric intake and/or a deficiency of first-class protein can retard or permanently stunt growth, thus restricting physical working capacity. Hyponutrition at the time of testing may limit glycogen stores and thus immediate performance. Chronic malnutrition may also sap will-power and the desire to develop potential working capacity.

At the turn of the twentieth century, malnutrition was a significant problem even in countries such as Britain and the United States. Partly for this reason, Dreyer (1920) included a table of weight for height standards in his book The assessment of physical fitness. During World War II, the German authorities discovered that a certain minimum quantity and quality of nutrients were helpful in sustaining the output of slave-labour employed in coal mining.

The working capacity of many indigenous peoples still seems limited by malnutrition, particularly in tropical regions. The activities necessary to subsistence are often completed in the face of severe constitutional handicaps. Thus, MacPherson (1966) describes the highland populations of New Guinea: ‘Although malnutrition has been amply demonstrated in children and protein deficiency is frequent in pregnant and lactating women, and skinfold thickness measurements are low and there is a decline in the weight–height ratio with age and the serum albumin is low, both men and women perform physical feats and show sustained stamina that few of us could match.’

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1978

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×