464 School-age health screenings: something old, something new…

Abstract

<h3></h3> The goal of this abstract is to give short insight into new national initiatives regarding school-age screenings in Croatia involving school health teams (school doctors and nurses). Situation analysis based on the data from Croatian sample of the HBSC (Health Behavior in School-aged Children) study regarding mental health, and data from Dental Passport program regarding caries prevention. According to the HBSC study, mental health indicators are the poorest among 15-year old pupils in comparison to 11- and 13-year-old pupils, while girls report poorer mental health than boys: in 2018 at age 15, almost every day 10% of girls and 3% of boys have headache, 15% of girls and 5,2% of boys feel depressed, 16,2% of girls and 6,2% of boys fill irritable, while 22,1% of girls and 10,7% of boys feel nervous. The pilot project on mental health screening among 15-years old pupils is conducted nationally as part of general examination of 1st grade of high school’s pupils in 2020, aiming to test the protocol for feasibility in different areas. The screening consists of self-administrated YP-CORE questioner for pupils followed by school doctor’s clinical appraisal. Program Dental Passport started in school year 2016/2017. The program is based on dental form which 6-grade-pupils (age 12) and children entering primary school (age 6) get from school doctors as referral to dentists for preventive examination. The number of 12-year-old pupils’ visits to dental doctors considerably increased from 2015 to 2018 (September-December): 27586 visits in 2015 (before Dental Passport Program), 27586 visits in 2016, 67425 in 2017, and 80317 in 2018; Diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in dental health care increased from 30347 in 2015 to 63337 in 2018 (source: CEZIH). Early detection is precondition for effective treatment and prevention of adverse health outcomes.