Rajendra V Awate
“ Catching them young” must be the aim of any health service programs for children. School represents a key environment for the development of life long and sound attitudes to health and fitness . The school age period, 5 to 15 years, is one of the most crucial and impressionable of a child’s life when growth and development takes place on all fronts . The schools have long been recognized as important links between health and education. They serve as the site for routine health screening; objectives of which are: - i) Detection of the present health problems (cross-sectional morbidity), ii) Diagnosis of the sequel of the morbidities experienced during the pre-school period; preventing their further deterioration and recurrence, iii) Provision of intervention measures to all such problems so as to permit every child to achieve optimal learning, iv) Prevention in childhood of health problems in adult life.
