Morbidity patterns and its associated factors among school children of an urban slum in Hyderabad, India
Journal Title: International Journal of Medical Science and Public Health - Year 2015, Vol 4, Issue 9
Abstract
Background: More than a billion children now live in cities and towns. Children of the urban slums are denied essentials such as clean water and health care even though they may live closer to these services. Private schools in urban slums do not have any school health programs. Objective: To study the morbidity patterns among the school children attending private schools in an urban slum; to explore the association of specific morbidities with socioeconomic and demographic factors. Materials and Methods : This was a cross-sectional, descriptive study. Five private schools in an urban slum were chosen by cluster sampling technique. A cross-sectional survey to assess the morbidity patterns and its associated factors was conducted with 713 school children aged 4–15 years. Result: Overall attendance of the students was 83.5%. Anemia (33.5%), worm infestation (47.4%), dental caries (56.24%), and poor personal hygiene were more prevalent. A significant association was found between socioeconomic and demographic factors such as maternal illiteracy, occupation, hygiene, social class, and so on, and specific morbidities among the study subjects. Conclusion: Children in urban slums attending private schools have a high prevalence of morbidities. Certain socioeco - nomic and demographic factors are significantly associated with specific morbidities. Sensitization of all stakeholders and initiating comprehensive school health services with active involvement of parents may be the need of the hour.
Authors and Affiliations
Saba Syed, Sukhdas Gangam, Shujauddin Syed, Raghavendra Rao
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP127866
- DOI 10.5455/ijmsph.2015.30032015264
- Views 50
- Downloads 0
Effective approaches to improve the psychosocial work environment
There has been a growing recognition that the experience of psychosocial hazards at work has detrimental effects on the health and well-being of employees, as well as on the workplace productivity and pro fi ts. Issue...
Perceived reasons of rural mothers regarding family size at Cherlapally, India
Background: In India, despite the availability of family planning (FP) methods since 1951, the use of FP remains low. It is not well-established how people make family decisions on the use of FP. Their perceptions ab...
Study of cytodiagnosis of thyroid neoplastic lesions and comparison with histopathology
Background: One of the major advancement in anatomic pathology is found to be the improvements in aspiration cytology. Cancer is found to be one among the 10 leading causes of mortality in India. The advantages of...
Goodness of Measurement: Reliability and Validity
The two most important and fundamental characteristics of any measurement procedure are reliability and validity and lie at t he heart of competent and effective study. However, these phenomena have often bee...
Audit of sepsis in neonatal surgeries at tertiary-care level hospital in India
Background: Postoperative sepsis, which has high morbidity and mortality, is a major problem affecting the outcome of neonatal surgeries. Adequate treatment and preventive measures for sepsis can decrease the morbidi...