Utilization and assessment of school healthcare services provided to schoolchildren by family physicians in Menoufia, Egypt

Abstract

Objectives The aim of the study was to assess parents' satisfaction in as well as utilization of school healthcare services provided for their children. Background School healthcare services provide education and counseling in a variety of health and wellness topics and aid in controlling the spread of communicable diseases, serving as a medical resource in the development of policies and procedures in the school. Thus, improving school healthcare services will have a remarkable effect on children's health and on the community at large. Participants and methods This is a cross-sectional study involving 230 children older than 10 years chosen randomly from two grades from two schools, one from an urban area (Taha Hussein School in Shebin El Kom City, Menoufia Governorate) and the other from a rural area (Meet masoad primary school in Meet Masoad village, Menoufia Governorate), both schools having been chosen at random. This age group was selected so that the children were old enough to understand and help their parents fill up the questionnaire. The predesigned questionnaires were sent home with children to their parents and only 200 (86.95%) completed questionnaires were returned. The questionnaire include data on measurements of satisfaction in different services provided in the healthcare unit of the school, quality of school healthcare services, availability of school healthcare services, and degree of utilization of these services. The obtained data were tabulated and analyzed statistically. Results The study showed that there was no statistically significant difference between urban and rural areas with regard to the availability of school healthcare services. The study also showed that about 74% of parents in the rural area seek medical advice in primary healthcare, represented by the family health unit. Question No. 8 in our questionnaire asked about the type of medical care that was the participant's first choice (private clinic, hospital, or primary healthcare). Participants whose first choice was primary healthcare were classified as regular utilizers and the other participants were classified as nonregular utilizers. All 200 children were utilizers of school healthcare services. The study showed that differences in residence and parent satisfaction were highly significantly different between regular utilizers and nonregular utilizers (P The study showed that 35% of rural parents considered the services to be expensive compared with 11% of urban parents. Conclusion The quality of school healthcare services is poor, as evaluated through the responses in our questionnaire. We recommend regular measurement of satisfaction in services provided to children in order to improve quality as well as provide regular training programs for medical staff to update their knowledge and improve their performance.