Schoolchildren in the Abu Dhabi emirate will undergo a comprehensive preventive screening in an effort to determine the current health status of the younger population. The screening will also identify factors impairing their learning process.
The comprehensive school health programme, which will be rolled out in the coming days at all public schools, include hearing, dental, vertebrae curvature check-up (scoliosis) and blood haemoglobin, urine and clinical examinations, in addition to the mandatory body mass index (BMI) and vision test.
The examination, which will be carried out every year, will be conducted by a team of physicians and nurses from the Ambulatory Healthcare Services (AHS) — the outpatient services of Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA) — at the school clinics.
“The objective is to be able to actually look into the current status of the health of the schoolchildren and to improve where there needs improvement and fill the gap if any,” Dr John Evangelista, director of SEHA — AHS, told Khaleej Times in an interview.
“This is a new programme for children… to find out among those age groups the prevalence of diabetes and other chronic disease as well as the hearing and eyesight problems — things that parents sometimes don’t realise impair their children from performing better in school,” he added.
The comprehensive screening programme will target primary, secondary and university students in the age group of 8-17 years who are enrolled in government schools as part of the Thiqa preventive programme.
The AHS has previously conducted the Weqaya screening programme for Emiratis 18 years and above, which showed that 70 per cent of the 180,000 adult Emiratis are either obese or overweight. The findings also showed that one in five adults has diabetes, with a further one in three at high risk of developing diabetes over the next five years.
Dr Evangelista said they are currently in discussion with the Department of Education and Knowledge (ADEK) on the schedule of implementation in each of the public schools in the emirate. “Because of the volume of the number of schoolchildren, we have to do it within the whole year in (phases),” he said. For the 2010-2011 academic year, there are 297 public schools in the emirate with around 130,256 students on their rolls.
As soon as logistics are finalised, Dr Evangelista said the programme will be introduced to parents in a formal letter accompanied by the child’s health history and consent forms.
In the meantime, parents can bring their children to any of the 30 outpatient clinics of the AHS where they will be screened, added Dr Evangelista. A health report card will be given to the parents informing them of the status of their children. In case the child has a health problem, he or she will be given an appointment to see a physician who will manage his or her condition. “At the same time, this will be a permanent record in the files of their children in our clinics,” said Dr Evangelista. “Later on if there are trends such as a big percentage of obesity in a particular community, we can initiate an awareness programme and start correcting it,” he added.
Dr Evangelista said that in future, they may look at studying the health trends of the schoolchildren in the emirate, “because this will help shape policies within the health authority”.
Dr Jennifer Moore, section head of the Family and School Health at the Health Authority — Abu Dhabi (HAAD), had told Khaleej Times earlier that HAAD had introduced the mandatory BMI and vision screening at all public schools last year, covering 126,000 students. She said that HAAD will implement the comprehensive school health programme this school year.
According Najah Mustapha, director of School Health Services (SHS) at SEHA, the SHS 2009 annual report showed that students have visited their school clinics 600,000 times last year, meaning on average, a student visited the school clinic five times asking for some kind of service.
The coverage for immunisation last year for Grade 1 to 12 was between 98-99 per cent, with one per cent accounting for unavailability of the vaccine.
“Childhood immunisation included Hepatitis B, measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), polio and tetanus,” said Mustapha.
By Olivia Olarte
© Khaleej Times 2010
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