School entry: teachers' reactions to policy changes

This study investigated the attitudes and practices of teachers towards a school entrance policy which was introduced in New South Wales, Australia at the beginning of 1987. The policy allows children to enter school at four years and six months of age in a single intake at the commencement of the school year. Curriculum changes were introduced to cater for the younger children. The findings of the study show that teachers are generally in favour of the single intake but many are concerned about the age of entry of children. Twenty seven percent of the teachers sampled had not made curriculum changes as a result of the policy and 11.3% of teachers said they were unable to cater for the needs of children. Teachers appeared to adopt the attitude that children should be ready for school rather than that the school should be ready for children.     

Effect of a breakfast program on the nutrient intake of black children

The effect of a free breakfast program was evaluated by comparing the 24‐hr, dietary intake of 252 black children who attended one school offering a breakfast program with the intake of 303 black children at a nearby school where breakfast was not served. Although the mean intake of the children in both schools was close to, or greater than, the RDA for all the nutrients under study, approximately 48 percent of the children reported diets that provided less than two‐thirds of the RDA for one or more nutrients. The children attending the breakfast school consumed significantly more of their total daily nutrient intake before 10 a.m. than the children in the control school. These differences were more pronounced among the children with poor diets. Also, a significantly greater number of children from the control school reported that they had nothing to eat prior to 10 a.m. These observations indicate that the breakfast program had a beneficial effect.     

Adults' accounts of onset of regular smoking: influences of school, work, and other settings

A representative population sample of 546 adults in Victoria, Australia, who had ever smoked were asked to describe the general setting where they first took up regular smoking and who, if anyone, influenced them to begin. Although school was the dominant setting (35 percent), particularly for younger respondents 20-34 years (55 percent), the workplace was also an important setting for uptake of regular smoking. Overall, 34 percent reported taking up smoking while in a job. The probability of taking up smoking at work increased with age but, even among younger respondents, many did not begin smoking until they started work. Fourteen percent took it up between leaving school and commencing college or a university or their first job, and 22 percent of those who attended college or a university took up smoking in that setting. One-quarter of the sample said that nobody had influenced them to take up smoking, but most of the remainder indicated that either friends, family, or workmates had played a part. Most mentioned were good friends at school (20 percent), good friends known socially (14 percent), and good friends at work (7 percent). Others listed were family (7 percent), boy friend or girl friend (7 percent). Overall, 10 percent had taken up regular smoking under the influence of workmates at work, suggesting that smoke-free workplace policies might be useful in the long term in reducing the prevalence of smoking in the community.     

Psychosocial outcomes for adult children of parents with severe mental illnesses: demographic and clinical history predictors

Children of parents with mental illness are at risk of psychiatric and behavioral problems. Few studies have investigated the psychosocial outcomes of these children in adulthood or the parental psychiatric history variables that predict resilience. From a sample of 379 mothers with serious mental illnesses, 157 women who had at least one adult child between the ages of 18 and 30 were interviewed. Mothers reported that about 80 percent of these adult children were working, in school, or in training. However, about one-third had not completed high school, and 54 percent were judged to have a major problem in psychological, drug or alcohol, or legal domains. Although nearly 40 percent were parents of minor children, only about 12 percent were in a committed relationship. Mothers' bipolar diagnosis was a significant predictor for number of adult child problems.The results indicate a need for more attention to the parenting status of adults with mental illnesses and to their parenting concerns and needs.     

Early childhood teachers' computer attitudes, knowledge, and practices

Two hundred-fifty kindergarten and preschool teachers in public and private schools in a five county area of Illinois, including the city of Chicago, were surveyed to identify teachers' computer attitudes, knowledge and practices. The results showed that over ninety percent of the teachers had positive or very positive personal and professional attitudes towards using the computer. Fifty-one percent of the teachers were using the computer in their classroom. Of that fifty-one percent, twenty percent said that their children also used the computer in a lab in the school, while thirty one percent only had the computer in their classroom. An additional twenty percent did not have a computer in the classroom, but did have a computer lab available. Twenty-nine percent did not have a computer in the lab or in the classroom. Thirty six percent of the teachers had a computer at home with the most common brand being some type of Apple computer. Seven percent of the teachers had no training, knowledge or experience on the computer. Sixty-seven percent had some training, knowledge and experience with a computer and twenty six percent had training and knowledge and used the computer frequently. The majority of teachers had learned to use a computer through workshops, university classes or on their own. Very few teachers had received instruction at school from a school computer instructor.     

Control of a measles outbreak in an elementary school. Baltimore County,Md. 1975.

Between April 18 and May 20, 1975, 16 cases of measles occurred in pupils in an elementary school in Baltimore County, Md., and 1 case occurred in a sibling at a junior high school. Measles was serologically confirmed in 16 of these pupils. Attack rates were determined by grade and by vaccine status. The measles attack rate was 2.1 percent for the 377 children who had been given measles vaccine at 1 year of age or later. The rates were 27.8 percent (13 times higher) for those vaccinated at less than 10 months of age and 20.0 percent (10 times higher) for those with no definite history of vaccine. The higher attack rates for children who were vaccinated only before 10 months of age supports the 1972 recommendation of the Public Health Service Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices that children vaccinated before this age need to be revaccinated with live measles virus vaccine to assure full protection. The finding that 2 of 10 children with a history of measles became ill during the outbreak suggests that such histories are not a totally reliable indicator of immunity. Containment of the outbreak was attributed to the high level of immunity in the community and prompt initiation of control measures.     

Attitudes toward smoking and family-based health promotion among rural mothers and other primary caregivers who smoke

The family milieu provides a potential context for integrating smoking cessation and prevention activities to complement school-based efforts. In this study, surveys were mailed to caregivers of elementary school children to assess demographics, smoking characteristics and attitudes, and receptivity to and preferred format for health promotion programs. Fifty-three percent (n = 276) of 501 caregivers responded. Among smokers, most did not want their children to smoke, and they wanted to quit themselves; 91% considered it important to involve their children in their smoking cessation attempts; and 70% expressed willingness to participate in health promotion for the entire family. Written materials either mailed home or brought home from school were the preferred program formats. These findings suggest the feasibility of a program in which adults and children work together at home on smoking cessation and prevention activities that might increase the effectiveness of school-based smoking prevention messages.     

Milk tolerance among malnourished school children in Malaysia

1,256 malnourished children, aged seven to ten years, were selected for study, 575 from Kuala Langat, 416 from Wilayah Persekutuan and 265 from Ulu Selangor. Ninety-three percent of the children were from low socioeconomic groups with large family size, and most of their parents had only primary or no formal education. During the study period, children in Kuala Langat received daily milk supplementation for five days per week, those in Wilayah Persekutuan for two days per week, while those in Ulu Selangor did not receive any milk supplementation. The study shows that a majority of the malnourished primary school children liked to drink milk and that milk intolerance was not a problem among them.     

Direct measurement of sun protection in primary schools.

BACKGROUND: "Kidskin" is an intervention study involving children at 33 primary schools in Perth, Western Australia. This study includes measurement of changes in implementation of schools' sun protection policies. This paper reports on measurement of observable aspects of sun protection. METHODS: Hat use was assessed from videos of children in the playground. Shade use was measured using UVR-sensitive polysulfone badges worn by a random sample of children. Shade provision was measured from aerial photographs of the schools. Principals were surveyed about school policies and practices. RESULTS: Eighty-seven percent of children wore a hat during lunch time at school, although only 14% wore the most protective styles of hats. The mean proportion of ambient UVR exposure received by Year 1 children was 15.5%; children spent less time in the sun on sunnier days. On average, 14.5% of the playground was shaded; this was not associated with children's sun exposure. Correlations between these results and the principals' estimates were poor. CONCLUSIONS: Children should be encouraged to wear more protective styles of hats and to avoid sun exposure, even on less sunny days during spring and summer. Principals' estimates of shade provision and children's sun protection behavior at school are of little value.     

Personal and environmental factors associated with active commuting to school in Switzerland

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether prevalence of active commuting and regular car trips to school varies across communities and language regions in Switzerland and to determine personal and environmental correlates. METHODS: During the school year 2004/2005, 1345 parental questionnaires (response rate 65%) of children attending 1st, 4th and 8th grades were completed, 1031 could be linked to a GIS environmental database. A German-speaking, a French-speaking and a bilingual study area were included. Usual mode of transportation and frequency of regular car trips to school were assessed. Associations with personal and environmental factors were evaluated with multivariate regression models. RESULTS: Seventy-eight percent of the children actively traveled to school. Twelve percent were regularly driven at least once a week by car. Major road crossings and distance were significantly related to usual mode of transportation, but not to regular car trips. Age, daycare attendance, parental safety concerns, number of cars in the household and belonging to French-speaking population were significantly associated with increased regular car trips. CONCLUSION: Objective predictors are main deciding factors for active commuting to school as main mode of transport whereas personal and lifestyle factors are important factors associated with frequency of car use. Not only objective but also differing cultural attitudes should be considered when promoting non-motorized travel.     

Breakfast-skipping in children and young adolescents in The Netherlands

Background: The objective of this study was to provide nationalfigures on the prevalence of breakfast-skipping and the associationwith sociodemographic variables in 4–15 year old children.Methods: Data of 4,377 children were collected. A food questionnaire(24 h recall) was completed by the parents or by the older childrenthemselves. Results: Five percent of the children in primaryschool and 13% of the children in secondary school skipped breakfastbefore going to school. Breakfast-skipping is more frequentin girls, older children, children of fathers of low educationor living with a single parent and in children attending schoolin a large city. Conclusions: The results of this study pointout the need for preventive programmes to encourage breakfastconsumption in certain groups at risk.     

A survey of pediatricians' attitudes and practices about maternal employment

A survey of 281 members (31 percent) of the Texas Pediatric Society was performed in 1981 to assess members' knowledge of, attitudes toward, and practices regarding mothers who work outside the home. Only 15 percent correctly answered two of three knowledge questions about maternal employment. Thirty-five percent of the pediatricians failed to inquire about maternal employment. Although only 1 percent advised all mothers not to work, 22 percent said that mothers with children at home should not work. Most pediatricians had traditional conservative attitudes and opinions (exemplified by the statement "a woman's place is in the home") in regard to two factors, "acceptability of maternal employment" and "effects of maternal employment on children." More liberal views were associated with more recent graduation from medical school, being a woman, having a working wife, being in favor of wife's working status, and knowledge of statistics concerning maternal employment. These results suggest that if the practices of those Texas pediatricians who responded correspond with other pediatricians' practices in the United States, a large proportion of pediatricians may not be providing adequate support for the 17 million working mothers and their children.     

Social deprivation, income inequality, social cohesion and dental caries in Brazilian school children

This ecological study investigated the associations between social deprivation, income inequality and social cohesion and dental caries levels in school children of the Distrito Federal, Brazil. Three sources of data were used: (1) area-based data from a 1997 social survey carried out on 13,000 families, (2) 1995 census data collected for the Government of the Distrito Federal (GDF), and (3) dental caries data from a 1997 oral health survey on 7296 6-12-year-old school children. Results of simple linear regression showed that percent with less than eight years of education (P = 0.03) and percent who did not have a maid (P = 0.009), were negatively statistically significantly associated with the percent of children free of caries. None of the deprivation measures were statistically significantly associated with mean DMF-T scores (P > 0.05). GINI coefficient, an indicator of social inequalities, was negatively statistically significantly associated with both measures of dental caries experience, percent of caries free (P = 0.003) and mean DMF-T scores (P = 0.01). Per thousand number of homicides or attempted homicides, an indicator of social cohesion was of marginal statistical significance associated with caries experience. Results of multiple linear regression analyses showed that only the Gini coefficient remained statistically significantly associated with both dental clinical measures used, after adjusting for potential confounding. In conclusion, relative rather than absolute levels of income were stronger determinants of the onset of caries in this study.     

The effect of new insurance coverage on the health status of low-income children in Santa Clara County

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether providing health insurance coverage to undocumented children affects the health of those children. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING: The data come from a survey of 1235 parents of enrollees in the new insurance program ("Healthy Kids") in Santa Clara County, California. The survey was conducted from August 2003 to July 2004. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study using a group of children insured for one year as the study group (N=626) and a group of newly insured children as the comparison group (N=609). Regression analysis is used to adjust for differences in the groups according to a range of characteristics. DATA COLLECTION: Parents were interviewed by telephone in either English or Spanish (most responded in Spanish). The response rate was 89 percent. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The study group-who were children continuously insured by Healthy Kids for one year-were significantly less likely to be in fair/poor health and to have functional impairments than the comparison group of newly insured children (15.9 percent versus 28.5 percent and 4.5 percent versus 8.4 percent, respectively). Impacts were largest among children who enrolled for a specific medical reason (such as an illness or injury); indeed, the impact on functional limitations was evident only for this subgroup. The study group also had fewer missed school days than the comparison group, but the difference was significant only among children who did not enroll for a medical reason. CONCLUSIONS: Health insurance coverage of undocumented children in Santa Clara County was associated with significant improvements in children's health status. The size of this association could be overstated, since the comparison sample included some children who enrolled because of an illness or other temporary health problem that would have improved even without insurance coverage. However, even after limiting the study sample to children who did not enroll for a medical reason, a significant association remained between children's reported health and their health coverage. We thus cautiously conclude that Healthy Kids had a favorable impact on children's health.     

School meals and the rate of growth of primary school children.

The effect of school meals on the rate of growth was assessed in two sets of children over one, two, and three-year periods in England and Scotland between 1973 and 1979. In all analyses children were subdivided into three groups: poor, not poor, and undefined, according to a set of questions on social circumstances. The rate of growth was assessed for children receiving school meals, lunches prepared at home, and those who changed scheme during the study period. No relation between rate of growth and uptake of school meals was found at any of the levels of poverty in England. In Scotland there was some indication in the poor group that children who received school meals had a smaller rate of growth than children having lunches prepared at home. There was inconclusive evidence that children from the poorer sectors of the community whose mother's worked outside the home may benefit from the school meals system. Although children selected for welfare support were smaller than other children, in so far as the design of the study allowed school meals during the 1970s did not increase the rate of growth of primary school children in any social stratum.     

Increasing Egg Consumption at Breakfast Is Associated with Increased Usual Nutrient Intakes: A Modeling Analysis Using NHANES and the USDA Child and Adult Care Food Program School Breakfast Guidelines

The objective of the current modeling analysis was three-fold: (1) to examine usual nutrient intakes in children when eggs are added into dietary patterns that typically do not contain eggs; (2) to examine usual nutrient intakes with the addition of eggs in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) school breakfast; and (3) to examine nutrient adequacy when eggs are included in routine breakfast patterns and with the addition of eggs to the CACFP school breakfast program. Dietary recall data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2011–2016 (children aged 1–18 years-old; n = 9254; CACFP n = 159) were used in the analysis. The usual intakes of pantothenic acid, riboflavin, selenium, and vitamin D increased ≥10 percent (relative to the baseline values) with the addition of one egg at breakfast. The usual intakes of protein and vitamin A at breakfast were also increased by more than 10 percent compared to the baseline values with the addition of two eggs. Similar outcomes were observed with the addition of eggs to the CACFP school breakfast. The percent of children above the adequate intake for total choline increased to 43.6 and 57.8% with one and two eggs, respectively, compared to 22.6% at the baseline. The addition of eggs at breakfast can contribute to nutrient intakes and overall dietary adequacy and play a role in public health initiatives aimed at increasing the intake of under-consumed nutrients and nutrients of concern.     

The use of preventive health services by disabled children

As a measure of the use of general pediatric health services we assessed disabled children's receipt of preventive health care in relation to a control group of nondisabled children, matched by age, family size, and region of residence. The study and control subjects were identified in a household survey conducted in Minnesota in 1976 and ranged in age from 1 to 18 years. The proportion who made a preventive health visit was nearly identical in both groups. Binary variable multiple regression showed that 9 percent of the variation in outcome was explained by the independent variables, which included demographic and socioeconomic characteristics and access to health care. Disability did not contribute significantly to the explained variation, but family structure, mother's education, and mother's use of preventive health services reached the 95 percent level of significance. The results suggest that children in a community who are identified as disabled are not at a disadvantage, in comparison with the nondisabled, in gaining access to preventive health services. The use of such services by all children appears to be low when information on using school health services is not available.     

北京市顺义区1997～2007年风疹发病特征

目的了解北京市顺义区1997～2007年风疹流行病学特征,为控制风疹提供依据。方法对风疹发病资料进行描述流行病学分析。结果1997～2007年,顺义区风疹发病277例,年平均发病率3．77／10万,不同年份间发病率的差异有统计学意义（P〈0．01）;3～7月为发病高峰,占发病构成的77．85％;发病以学生为主,占发病构成的60．65％;有明确免疫史的40人,占14．44％;流动人口发病逐渐升高,出现发病年龄后移现象。结论学校和流动人口是风疹控制的重点,今后要加强学校疫情监测,提高学生和流动人口麻腮风疫苗免疫率。     

Erythrocyte sedimentation rate in healthy school children of Bangladesh

The reference value of erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) should be established for a population concerned because it is influenced by many local conditions. It has not yet been determined in healthy children of Bangladesh. This study was done to determine the reference value of ESR in Bangladeshi children. ESR was determined in a sample of 413 'healthy' primary school students (259 boys and 154 girls, mean age 8.7 years). Ninety-five percent of them had ESR < or = 30 mm (Westergren 1 h). Our findings suggest that ESR value > 30 mm (Westergren 1 h) should be considered high in Bangladeshi primary school children.