THE PATTERN OF COMMONER HEALTH PROBLEMS AMONG BASIC SCHOOL CHILDREN, GEZIRA STATE, SUDAN

BACKGROUND: The lack of baseline information on the magnitude of health problems among school children is considered one of the factors of the unsatisfactory status of school health in Sudan. Availability of such data from schools will help in the health promotion of school children. OBJECTIVE: To determine the proportions of the commoner diseases or health problems among Wad Medani basic school children (males and females) at the end of the school year 2000-2001. METHOD: This is a cross-sectional study conducted on 3862 basic school children (males and females).They were selected by multi-stage stratified proportional random sampling according to their sex and localities. A pre-designed pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect data which were then tabulated and statistically analyzed. RESULTS: The study revealed that 77.9% of the study group had malaria, 33% of them had sore throat, 26.4% suffered from psychosocial problems that affected their school performance. Dental carries 24.5%, diarrhea attacks 17.5%, oxyuris worm 16.8%, pneumonia 11.5, measles infection 12.4%, asthma 9.2% and visual defects 8.9%. Some of these problems were related to the poor quality of school environment including sanitation and poor nutritional services. These findings should be considered in planning school health programmes. Appropriate interventions to reduce these problems through improving school environment and raising the awareness of the school community towards such problems is recommended.