Health among 6-year-old children in a Swedish county: based on the Health Dialogue

Abstract

Introduction: Children's health and school progress are strongly connected with future life. The Health Dialog (HD) is a method used by the school nurses in Sweden in the health promoting work. Purpose(s): To investigate and explore the health of children in a preschool context, 2006-2009. Material - Methods: Data originated from the HD that took place in pre-school classes during 2006-2009. The total sample consisted of 5259 HD from 6-year-old children. The HD is a structured instrument consisting of 15 questions that covers health from three dimensions according to WHO. The child and parents are invited to a HD with the school nurse. The school nurse registers the HD at EPI-child (an epidemiological database). Logistic regression and odds ratios (OR) were analyzed for the HD. Result(s): The most significant finding was that most children, regardless of gender, experienced good health (96.5%). Comfort in preschool, sleep, headaches, physical activity, play and bullying were important variables in the experience of health for all children. There were gender differences in experience of sleep, headaches, physical activity and play. More than one-third of all children had experienced bullying.The gender differences in experiences of health among six-year-old children are a surprising finding. Many of the boys were more physically active than the girls; the boys' health experience had a strong connection to headaches, while girls' health experience had a strong connection to sleep. Another finding was that even though 36% of the children had been bullied, their experience of health and comfort in preschool was good. Conclusion(s): Six-year-old children's health experiences are vital issues that need to be addressed in school health prevention and promotion and the HD can contribute to this work.