Bez nadpisu

1
The health risks in living and working regimen
of Slovak school children and the trend of
morbidity
Ševcíková L.1 Machácová, E.2 Štefániková, Z.1
Jurkovicová J.1 L., Ružanská.S. 1 Sabolová,
M.1 Ághová L.1 1Institute of Hygiene,
2Institute of Epidemiology, Medical Faculty,
Comenius University, Bratislava
2
Objectives
The quality of living and working conditions of
school children depends on physical,
psychological and socio-economic factors. The
changes in daily regimen - the proportion of
psycho-sensory and static load at school and
outside school, physical activity, daily
activities and rest - reflect in the health
status of children. The aim of research has been
the analysis of the health status change and
selected life-style factors in school children as
well as evaluation of the level of prevention and
intervention.
3
Material and Methods
The daily activity data obtained on the basis of
7-day records in representative samples of 2339
school children in 1998 have been compared with
the data of 2108 school children during the same
week of the year 1982. The questionnaire was
used for evaluation of chronic diseases
prevalence in school children with proportional
representation of boys and girls of all age
groups (6-14yrs) from all regions of Slovakia in
1986 (93 540 school children) and in 2000 (3437
children). The programmes EPI Info 6 and
Microsoft Excel were used for statistical
analysis.
4
Changes in the prevalence of chronic diseases of
school children in Slovakia


Impaired vision
Orthopaedic diseases
Psychological disorders
p lt 0.001
5
The regimen activities representing
psycho-sensory and static load in school
children ()
Optional lessons
Private lessons
Organised interest activities
PC







1-4th 5-9th Total
1-4th 5-9th Total
1-4th 5-9th Total
1-4th 5-9th Total
Grades
p lt 0,001
6
Sleep in school children (h)
Watching TV in school children (min)


h
min


r - 0,154 plt0,001
Grades
7
Regular sport activity in school children ()
The average time of daily outdoor activity in
school children (min)





min
()
Grades
p lt 0,001
8
Summary

• Health risks in daily regimen have increased in
  school children.
• The age differentiation in load has not been
  respected. Psycho-sensory and static strain is
  excessive in many younger pupils, significantly
  higher in comparison with those in the year
  1982.
• Physical and sport activities, which have a
  favourable influence on somatic and psychological
  functions, was very low in the youngest school
  children regardless of the increase the number of
  children who participate in sport.
• The significant shortening of sleep has been
  shown in relation with the significant increase
  of daily watching TV. TV influences life of
  school children in many aspects as is known from
  many studies.
• The time of active and passive daily leisure is
  not adequate for compensation of static and
  psycho-sensory load during lessons and other
  daily activities in school children.

9
Summary

• Described changes in the course of 16 years -
  i.e., increased psycho-sensory and static load,
  and low physical and sport activities - could
  contribute to significant increases in chronic
  diseases such as impaired vision, orthopaedic
  disorders with dominance of incorrect posture,
  and psychological disorders.
• The changes in morbidity of school children could
  be also in relationship with changes of
  psychosocial climate at schools and families,
  what showed our another studies. High number of
  school children (31 ) were often stressed,
  particularly at school. Subjective feeling of
  load was high in 50 - 90 of pupils in all
  grades.

10
Conclusion

Risk factors in regimen, behaviour and
environment of Slovak school children have
increased. Negative morbidity trend in Slovak
school children could be the consequence of
rising of psycho-sensory and static load and low
physical and sport activities in daily regimen,
but also of current non systematic preventive
health care during school attendance. The
adherence of basic hygienic principles in
educational process, psycho-hygienic principles
and intensive public health observation as well
as intervention oriented to children, parents and
teachers are the way of positive influence in the
situation of health status in school children.