Frequent medical absences in secondary school students: survey and case-control study.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of frequent absence (>20% of the school year) for reasons recorded as "medical" in secondary schools; to test the hypothesis that it is associated with physical symptoms and psychiatric disorder and not with serious organic disease; to assess unmet need for psychiatric management.

Design: Survey using routinely collected data and case-control study

Setting: Local authority secondary schools in Edinburgh, UK.

Participants: School students in the first 4 years of secondary school: cases were those with frequent medical absence and controls those with a good attendance record (best 10% of year group), matched for age, gender and school class.

Questionnaire for teachers changes the outcome of school entrance medical examinations.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of a teachers' questionnaire on the outcome of school entrance medical examinations (SEMs).

Methodology: Retrospective audit. Routine SEMs in 17 primary schools before and after the introduction of the questionnaire.

A comparison of hip guidance with reciprocating gait orthoses in children with spinal paraplegia: results of a ten-year prospective study.

Twenty-two children with spinal paraplegia were entered into a prospective randomised study to assess the efficacy of two reciprocating orthoses and to identify any prognostic factors that might affect continuing use of the devices. Thirteen received a hip guidance orthosis (HGO) and nine a reciprocating gait orthosis (RGO). They were followed for a mean of ten years.