Evidence-Based Preventive Healthcare in the CWB Family Support Homes: The Healthy Learners Pilot Program

Abstract

Zambia is one of the poorest countries in the world. The school aged population experiences high mortality and morbidity rates from malnutrition, chronic and acute infections. Our long-term goal is to develop an ongoing preventive health program to supplement the CWB educational mission. The pilot program included health screenings, detailed health status and needs survey, interviewing local experts and key stakeholders and a health promotion workshop for the schoolteachers. Follow-up screenings were also conducted in Summer 2013. We screened 455 children and surveyed 223 children with their guardians during the pilot study. The most common diagnoses were GU infections, URTIs, diarrhea and fungal infections. Among the 455 children screened, there were 51 cases of S. haematobium infection. A striking finding from the health status survey is the lack of knowledge on health and sanitation topics and the urgent need to integrate health and nutrition education in the school curriculum. The teachers’ health promotion workshop was effective in increasing teachers’ health literacy. The HLP pilot helped initiate a program to provide school-based healthcare to children with otherwise minimal access to care and to train their teachers in important basic public health topics.