State of health of 19 000 schoolchildren. Attempted registration
Ibsen, K.K.; Nielsen, A.
Ugeskrift for Laeger 142(40): 2656-2660
1980
ISSN/ISBN: 0041-5782 PMID: 7445179 Document Number: 163159
The conditions of health were illustrated in 17,344 children by the health examinations in the kindergartens and 1st, 2nd, 5th and 9th forms and the special classes in all the schools in the Muncipality of Copenhagen during the school session 1978/79. Registration of 1415 pupils from a neighboring district was included in some respects. The conditions of health were registered by means of forms which were filled in by the school health nurse, the school doctor and the class teacher together. Health problems (20) could be registered in this manner. These were somatic, psychiatric or social in nature. Each of the problems could be graduated into 3 degrees of severity. Subdivision of the registrations according to the situations of the schools in 5 districts in Copenhagen, Denmark, showed that the somatic problems were uniformly distributed in the different districts while there were relatively many psychiatric and social problems in Norrebro and in the North-West district. In the Municipality of Copenhagen and a neighboring district, the somatic registrations were uniformly distributed while significantly more psychiatric and social problems were present in the central parts of Copenhagen. Although attempts were made to undertake registration as exactly as possible, it did not prove possible to avoid considerable differences in the frequencies of registration in the individual schools. Continued registration is necessary to illustrate alterations in the disease patterns in the population.