Nutrition claims in British women's magazines from 1940 to 1955.

BACKGROUND: The present study examined dietary messages conveyed in articles and advertising in two popular British women's magazines, Woman and Home and Woman's Own, between 1940 and 1954. METHODS: A qualitative analysis of written content was performed, focusing on regularities evident in content, and addressing the construction of the role of women in relation to food provision, as well as assertions for nutritional health. The setting comprised a desk-based study. The study sample encompassed 37 magazines, and yielded a corpus of 569 articles concerned with food or dietary supplements, of which 80.1% were advertisements. RESULTS: Ministry of Food dietary advice featured prominently up to 1945 and advocated food consumption according to a simple nutrient classification. Advertising and article content also used this classification; advocating consumption of food and supplements on the grounds of energy, growth and protection of health was customary. Providing food to meet nutritional needs was depicted as fundamental to women's war effort and their role as dutiful housewives. Advertising in 1950s magazines also focused on nutritional claims, with a particular emphasis on energy provision. CONCLUSIONS: These claims reflected the prevailing food policy and scientific understanding of nutritional health. This analysis of food messages in women's magazines provides lessons for contemporary nutrition policy.

Hand and lower arm injuries among New Zealand meat workers and use of protective clothing.

AIM: To characterise work related hand and lower arm injuries among New Zealand meat processors and to identify practices used for protecting the hands of this group of workers. METHODS: These involved identifying and describing, from Department of Health national data, hand and lower arm injuries sustained by meat workers in New Zealand which resulted in hospitalisation during the period 1979-88, examining injury case records from selected meat processing plants for the period 1987-93 and identifying protective clothing practices in the meat processing industry. RESULTS: A significant increase in the hospitalisation rate for the period 1979-88 was identified (3.3 per 1000 to 5.3 per 1000; chi(2) = 33.14, df = 1, p < 0.001) with cutting and piercing being the most common injury event. Reported use of protective gloves and covers for the lower arm by meat workers was high (93% and 66% respectively) and also probably increased. CONCLUSION: Why injury rates rose during a period in which use of protective gloves reportedly increased is unclear. Possible explanations are discussed.

Work-related hand and lower-arm injuries in New Zealand, 1979 to 1988.

The aim of this study was to describe the epidemiology of work-related hand and lower-arm injuries in New Zealand. Nonfatal hand and lower-arm injuries were identified from New Zealand's national database of hospital admissions for the period 1979 to 1988. Thirty-seven per cent (9714) of all such injuries (26,228) were work-related. Piercing and cutting instruments (38.5 per cent) and machinery (37.2 per cent) were the two most common agents of work-related hand and lower-arm injury. Specific occupations in which the number of cases was high included meat workers (n = 1020, 3.3 per 1000 employees), carpenters (n = 548, 2.2 per 1000), machine operators (n = 450, 11.9 per 1000) and sawmill workers (n = 498, 7.7 per 1000). The injury rate for meat workers, carpenter-joiners, machine operators and sawmillers increased significantly over the 10-year study period.