The health status of school children and the effectiveness of the school medical entrance examination

The records of 425 school children entering first grade were reviewed in order to determine their health status and the effectiveness of the medical entrance examination in detecting new conditions. The study population consisted of children from low and middle class families from a neighborhood of West Jerusalem. Thirty-nine percent of the children had at least one pathological condition of which 61 percent had been diagnosed previously. Eighty-four percent of the unknown conditions were diagnosed by the nurse by screening or interview. Since only very few new conditions needing treatment were detected by the school health service physician it is recommended that the physicians' examination be discontinued with respect to the routine health surveillance; that the screening be performed by the nurses; and that a report on the health status of the child be requested from the family physician or pediatrician. This procedure would allow allocation of school physicians' time to health promotion and health education activities.