MORBIDITY PATTERN AMONG SCHOOL CHILDREN IN A TRIBAL DISTRICT OF MAHARASHTRA: A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY BASED ON SECONDARY DATA.

Abstract

Background: India harbours one of the largest tribal populations in the world. Ashram schools are established in tribal districts, which are meant to uplift the education of tribal children. Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) was launched in 2013 to provide targeted and comprehensive health care to children aged 0 –18 years. This study targets to nd morbidity patterns among them with the help of data collected by RBSK and to give suitable recommendations based on the ndings This secondary Methodology: data-based observational descriptive study was carried out in two blocks of the Palghar district of Maharashtra State. After obtaining ethical approval and necessary permissions, health-related data of all Ashram School children collected by the RBSK team from November 2021 to October 2022 was retrieved and stored in electronic format. The proportion of different health problems was calculated. Rashtriya Bal Results: Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) team screened 21,818 school children (49.4% boys and 50.6% girls) of the age group of 10-18 years from different Ashram schools for one year (November 2021 to October 2022). The team referred a total of 2016 students to higher medical facilities. Amongst the total screened 26.56% with 24 diseases as per the RBSK report. Additionally, 87% of students had 'Disease or Disorder', 5.8% had 'Deciencies', 4.5% had any kind of 'Defect' and 2.7% had any kind of 'Developmental delay'. The majority of the students were affected by respiratory airway diseases (44.5%), menstrual problems (16.1%) and skin conditions (11.1%). Study Conclusion: ing morbidity patterns under 4Ds approach enables intervention at an early stage of diseases. Capacity building of RBSK program and digitalised standard reporting system and integration of school health with other National Health Programmes may contribute to improving children's health.