A megapolis school children medical check-up: organizational approaches problems and their solutions

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Abstract
Public perception of preventive procedures, including the regular medical check-up of school students, directly affects the adherence to compliance with the recommendations based on the investigations’ results and the desire to undergo preventive examinations on a regular basis. Objective. To determine the features of perception of the system of school students’ regular medical check-up in Moscow by direct participants of the procedure for identification of growth areas and drawing up of recommendations. Materials and methods. The work included a combination of research procedures. 1. Analysis of social media: analysis of uploaded messages on relevant topics using the Brand Analytics software product. 2. Representative telephone survey of parents: total sample size of 803 persons. 3. Online survey of school students from three age groups: 6—7 years, 12—14 years, 15—17 years (150 people in each group). Children aged 6—7 years were interviewed exclusively through parents. 4. Expert interview: carried out with 5 experts (3 — from healthcare; 2 — from education). 5. Literature review that considers the foreign experience of preventive examinations of children. Results. The vast majority of respondents are satisfied with the regular medical check-up («completely satisfied»/«rather satisfied»): parents — 75%, school students aged 12—14 years — 79%, school students aged 15—17 years — 88%. The most frequent associations with the «regular medical check-up» word among the population are formal, abstract and unemotional. Growth areas have been identified: 1) organizational problems — most commonly referred to the examination of too many children at once (parents — 22%, children aged 12—14 years — 50%, children aged 15—17 years — 47%); 2) problem of results implementation — 88% of parents and 80% of children do not see any changes in the organization of school process according to the results of examinations; 3) ethical issues — children have more frequently noted the discomfort from changing clothes in front of other children; 4) problems of education/healthcare institutional incoherence in organization of processes. Groups of children at risk for refusal of regular medical check-up have been described. Conclusion. The population think about the procedure of regular medical check-up of school students positively, but formally. The growth areas, work with which need to be done for improving system of preventive examinations, have been revealed.

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