School Health and Physician's Role

Student health is increasingly being recognized as a public health priority because of the high risk of diseases exposed to students in each stage of growth and development. School-based clinics are primary health care centers located on the campuses of schools and offer a variety of services to promote student health, emphasizing medical care, healthy school environment, nutrition services and health education. However, student health problems related to drug abuse, mental health, and sexually transmitted diseases, etc., have been increasing due to social complexity, attainment of higher education and economic growth.

Recently, there has been a controversy over the effectiveness of school health programs in dealing with juvenile health and social problems. The gravity of the situation lies in the fact that health problems generally encountered in middle and high school students occur more frequently in elementary school children.

Therefore, in order to strengthen student health programs, health services that assess, promote and protect student health need to be designed to ensure access and referral to primary health care services in the community by establishing close networks with community physicians and making use of the available facilities and resources.