HC Deb 16 March 1983 vol 39 cc202-3W
Dr. Roger Thomas

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will establish a departmental investigation into the effects of low vitamin intake in the elderly.

Mr. Geoffrey Finsberg

The Department has already carried out studies on the relationship between vitamin intake and health in the elderly. The results were published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office in 1972 and 1979 in the series "Reports on Health and Social Subjects" Nos. 3 and 16. When vitamin deficiency leading to malnutrition occurs in this group, it is almost invariably associated with clinical disease or conditions such as depression following bereavement.