Assessing sense of coherence as an element of primary‐focused health services in schools for children and adolescents with complex health care needs

Abstract

This study aimed to clarify if sense of coherence (SOC) could be used as an element of primary-focused health services in schools. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is striving to develop a high-quality, primary-focused health care system. School health care services are well established in the UAE but have not yet been fully used to play a key role in this development. This is a cross-sectional survey study to explore adolescents' SOC and their behavioural, psychosocial and clinical outcomes. A total of 408 adolescents participated in this study. Compared with others, adolescents with higher SOC had better adherence to treatment, fewer visits to the school nurse, better self-efficacy, fewer hyperactivity problems, fewer emotional problems, more prosocial behaviours and fewer conduct problems. Implementing interventions that improve SOC may support improved well-being among adolescents. The findings also support the use of SOC and salutogenesis as a framework to reinforce primary health care services for this population. Health service managers can utilize SOC as a framework to focus service on illness prevention and health promotion, they should collaborate with education authorities to include more health-related topics as part of school curricula to promote students' SOC and, finally, they should assess and build awareness of SOC and associated tools among school nurses and primary health care providers.