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Identity statement

Reference code(s)

GB0100 KCLCA NUT

Title

KING'S COLLEGE LONDON: Nutritional Survey Records

Date(s)

1956-1999

Level of description

Sub-fonds of King's College London Archives

Extent and medium of the unit of description (quantity, bulk, or size)

353 boxes and files

Context

Name of creator(s)

King's College London, Department of Nutrition and Dietetics

Administrative / Biographical history

A Department of Nutrition was established at Queen Elizabeth College in 1945, one of the first of its kind in Europe. The Department was transferred to King's in 1985 upon the merger of King's and Queen Elizabeth. It is now part of the Division of Health Sciences in the School of Life and Health Sciences. The Department and its staff have participated with government agencies such as the Department of Health and Social Security and the Medical Research Council, in a number of influential projects and studies to determine the relationship between socio-economic status, nutritional intake and the health of sections of the British population, most notably, pre, and school age, children. The Department has also undertaken independent surveys including of postmenopausal women and low income families.

Archival history

Some records of a survey of the nutrition of school children, 1970-1971, were transferred from Alison Black of the Medical Research Council Dunn Nutrition Centre, Cambridge, to Professor Catherine Geissler of the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, King's College London, in 1998. These were combined with material originating in King's and transferred to the King's Archives in 2000-2001.

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Professor Catherine Geissler, Head of the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, 2000-2001.

Content & structure

Scope and content

King's College London Nutritional Survey papers comprise completed questionnaires, survey participants' assessment reports, audio interviews, data tables, log books and printed pamphlets, 1956-1999. These notably consist of papers relating to:

the National Nutritional Survey of primary school children, expectant mothers and pre-school children, including personal files for participants in Croydon, Newcastle upon Tyne, Bristol, Sheffield and Birmingham, with computer-generated tables and histograms, 1970-1971;

Medical Research Council Dunn Nutrition Unit Family Food survey of families' nutritional history, including food logbooks and diaries, 1977-1980;

questionnaires, coding books and user guides associated with the National Food Survey, the continuous survey of United Kingdom households measuring food consumption and expenditure, 1982-1991;

user guides, instructions to interviewers and data forms connected with the Family Expenditure Survey established by the Department of Employment and later run by the Office for National Statistics to collect statistics required to calculate the Retail Price Index, 1990-1996;

Department of Social Security Family Resources Survey used in setting national expenditure targets, including annual reports and related documentation, 1993-1995;

papers relating to a Department of Nutrition and Dietetics survey of pupils' diets at three London schools: Hornsey School for Girls, Acland Burghley School and Ravenscroft School, including Iron Knowledge Questionnaires on the perceived contribution of iron to the diet, food diaries and consent forms, 1994-1998;

Department of Nutrition study conducted at King's College Hospital of the relationship between calcium intake, physical activity and bone density in post-menopausal women, including participants' files containing biochemistry reports, diagnostic bone assessments, food consumption charts, exercise trial results and medical history screening questionnaires, 1991-1993;

Department of Nutrition and Dietetics Food and Low Income Projects Database, assessing the diets of low income families, practical cooking trials and proposals for improvements to diet, with questionnaires, interview audiocassettes, statistical printouts and related literature, 1998;

completed questionnaires relating to the training of nutrition professionals, mainly drawing upon the responses of State Registered Dieticians, [1988];

completed food intake diaries for a dietary survey of residents of Norfolk, [1993-1994];

completed questionnaires determining socio-economics, anthropometrics, dentition and nutrition for recruits to a Department of Nutrition research project on childhood, [1986-1990];

completed questionnaires for an Imperial Cancer Research Fund survey into the effects of physical activity, 1989;

Department of Health and Social Security food composition tables comprising statistics showing the calorific value of various foods, 1969-1973;

printed information pamphlets on baby food, 1956-1973;

various printed reports on the role in the diet of saccharin and mineral supplements, and of sodium in hypertension, 1967-1985.

System of arrangement

Files are arranged in order of receipt and tend to reflect runs of notes on specific research projects, in particular the material received from the Dunn Nutrition Centre on the diets of children.

Conditions of access & use

Conditions governing access

Administrative records are generally closed for 30 years except for published material.

Conditions governing reproduction

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Director of Archive Services.

Language/scripts of material

English

Finding aids

A boxlist is available in hard copy in the College Archives reading room.

Allied materials

Existence and location of originals

King's College London College Archives

Description control

Archivist's Note

Entry compiled by Geoff Browell.

Rules or conventions

Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

This catalogue is made available under the Open Data Commons Attribution License. This catalogue may be updated from time to time in order to reflect additional material and/or new understandings of the material.

Date(s) of descriptions

January 2002