Morbidity pattern and personal hygiene in children among private primary school in urban area: Are the trends changing?

Abstract

Introduction:School health is an important intervention as a great deal of research tells us that schools can have a major effect on children's health, by teaching them about health and promoting healthy behaviors.Aims:The aim of this study is to determine common health problems and assess personal hygiene status among primary school children.Settings and Design:A cross-sectional study was conducted in academic years 2009-2010 and 2010-2011, with three health check-up camps organized in private primary school of Pune city.Materials and Methods:A total of 450 students were assessed for health problems and composite score of personal hygiene status was calculated ranging from 0 to 5 by examination of hairs, nails, skin and clothes.Statistical Analysis Used:Proportions calculated with application of Chi-square test and Pearson co-efficient applied to observe the relation between two quantitative variables.Results:Out of 450 students examined, 56.2% were boys and 43.8% were girls with age ranging from 5 to 10 years. The major morbidities observed were dental caries (65.1%), upper respiratory tract infections (38.2%), ear wax (29.9%) and myopia (10.0%). Mean hygiene score was significantly higher in girls (4.32) than boys (3.95) and poor hygiene observed in older boys.Conclusion:Increasing myopia and poor dental hygiene denotes a changing morbidity pattern in private primary school of the urban area. The hygiene status of the girls is significantly better than boys.

Diarrhoea morbidity patterns in Central Region of Ghana, 2008-2012

“…This result is in conformity with Ahmed et al, (2008) [18] in their study which showed that, male gender (10.4%) was significantly more susceptible to diarrhoea than females (8.1%) [17]. This might be due to the finding that, females are more conscious of hygienic practices and hence maintain personal hygiene than males as reported by Mhaske Mayavati S. et al, (2013) [22] in their study in which hygiene score for skin and clothes was significantly poor in males compared to female school children in India. But this finding is in contrast with that of Syed MS. et al, (2003) [23] in which females had marginally higher prevalence of diarrhoea than males in their study of estimating the prevalence and correlates of diarrhoea among children under three years in remote rural villages of South Pakistan.…”

A Study of the Morbidity Profile, Personal Hygiene and Nutritional Status of School Children in Rural Areas of District Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh

“…These findings were similar to those found by Amit Kaushik et al, (7) (46%). The incidence was lower than that reported by M S Mhaske et al, (11) (65.1%) but higher than that reported by V Rani et al, (12) (36.25%), S Ananthakrishnan et al, (13) (27.9%), P Panda et al, (14) (23.1%) and Shakya et al, (15) (19.8%).…”

Morbidity pattern of school children: a study conducted in the urban field practice area of a tertiary health care centre of Odisha, India

“…8,15 Cases of scabies were found among 3.1% of students which was similar to that reported by Sehgal R et al (3.09%), Berard AS et al (2.8%) and Sambo MN et al (2.9%). 15,8,9,18 Acute respiratory tract infection was detected among 21.9% children in the present study which was similar to that reported by Saluja N et al (23.4%) and Karikatti et al (22.57%). 14,19 Ear discharge was detected among 3.9% children in our study which was more than that reported by Sehgal R et al (2.85%), Ananthakrishnan S et al (3.1%) but much less than that reported by Kaushik A et al (13.6%) and Tiwari HC et al (21.5%).…”

“…However, study by Mhaske et al, has reported morbidity among boys is higher as compared to girls. 9 The magnitude of pallor in the present study was 47.6%, which was similar to that reported by Devi P et al (50.15%), but more than that reported by Tiwari HC et al (33.9%), Semwal et al (28.4%), Panda et al (26%) and Hassan et al (24.8%). [10][11][12][13]2 In our study, more number of female students had pallor than the male students and similar findings were reported in all other studies as well.…”