The health situation among Thai elementary school-age children: 2010.

Background: The school years are a crucial time in the development of the basic life skills necessary for learning in the various and different fields to be encountered in life, as well as for developing and acquiring the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to establish and maintain a healthy lifestyle. In general, elementary school-age children rarely present at health service centers but may nevertheless have health problems that affect their ability to learn.

Objective: To analyze the health situation among elementary school-age children in Thailand, for the creation of baseline information to serve as an evential basis for making recommendations for adjusting the medical education curriculum and for improving health service provision.

Material And Method: To analyze nationwide, hospital data, for the morbidity and mortality of children age 6-12 years in fiscal year 2010.

Results: Respiratory infections represented the leading cause for out-patient visits-approximately one-fifth. Respiratory infections were also a significant cause for admissions (21.6%), followed by dengue hemorrhagic fever (14.8%), injury and poisoning (11.3%), disease of digestive system (11.1%) and intestinal infection (10.3%). The leading causes of death were injury and poisoning (22.7%), followed by neoplasm (14.4%), other infection (13.5%) and respiratory infection (12.6%). Overall, about 50-60% of the causes of admissions and of deaths were due to infectious diseases and injury & poisoning.

Conclusion: Infectious diseases and injury & poisoning were the major physical illnesses among school-age children. Notwithstanding, there were other health issues-including nutrition, growth & development, mental health & psychosocial problems-that need to be recognized and addressed in order to ensure the health and well-being of school-age children in Thailand.