Health risk management program in schools; eyupsultan model with operational epidemiology

This study aims to detect and eliminate the problems in administering school health services in the Eyüpsultan district. To increase the school health program's functionality with a model that will enable school health professionals to take on an active role for children in making a healthy environment and combatting school health risks. By applying the operational epidemiology method, this study identifies inadequate adaptation of the schools in the district to the Health Protection and Promotion Program in Schools (OSKGP) and the deficiencies in the management of health risks that lead to the emergence of crises in the district. This study designs the district-specific "Health Risks Management Program in Schools" and uses cross- sectional research method for the needs assessment step. It retrospectively analyzes the OSKGP year-end evaluation forms of 191 schools and reaches 554 school employees and 146 Family Health Center employees in the district with a cross-sectional study. A semi-structured focus group interviews, a qualitative research method, are held with 10 persons who are the directors of school health studies. The most common health risks at schools are determined in light of the outputs. Training modules for these risks are developed and applied to school staff in "School Health Management Teams." After this intervention study, the impact analysis is conducted. The Wilcoxon test, the Mann-Whitney U test, and the Kruskal-Wallis test are used to identify the degree of difference between the pre-test and post-test grade averages related to the training modules. Through the McNemar test, the true-false rates of each question are examined and p <0.05. is accepted. After the intervention, the compliance of schools with OSKGP is also examined by the McNemar test, and a significant increase is observed. The rate of schools fulfilling all components within the scope of OSKGP is increased from 5.29% to 65.17%, and the developed program is observed as effective. The Health Risk Management Program in Schools under the school health management teams is determined as beneficial. Thus, this program is integrated into OSKGP with the decisions of the District School Health Board and the District Sanitation Council. Key Words: School health, school health program, operational research, health education, school health risks.