THE Department of Health is planning to collect data on the health habits of students by using questionnaire-based surveys from School Health Week, from August 13 to 18, through September.

The survey will be conducted as part of the Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS) designed and developed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to help countries measure and assess the behavioural risk factors and protective factors among young people aged 13 to 15.

Dr Aung Tun, the deputy director of the Department of Health, said data will be collected in 50 schools in all states and divisions covering about 2500 students between the ages of 13 and 15, in grades eight through 11.

The questionnaires will cover alcohol and drug use; dietary habits; hygiene and personal health; physical activity; HIV/AIDS; malaria; smoking; tobacco and betel use; physical attacks, fights and unintentional injury; and relaxation.

Dr Aung Tun, who is also the project manager of the department’s School and Youth Health Project, said the survey will help researchers compare the knowledge and attitudes of students in Myanmar concerning healthy behaviour with that of students in other countries.

“The survey will also help us develop better health programs for students,” he said.

He said the Department of Health will conduct the survey in collaboration with the Ministry of Education. A workshop was held in Nay Pyi Taw on August 9 for survey administrators to discuss how to carry out the project.

Dr Aung Tun said School Health Week activities will also highlight school environment sanitation, medical check-ups, control of infectious diseases, nutrition and health education.

He said school environment sanitation has become particularly important this season because there was a need to control the breeding of mosquitoes that carry dengue fever.

“But schools alone cannot prevent the causes of the disease. The community must also play a key role in maintaining a clean environment and taking preventive measures to fight dengue fever,” he said.

He said many people want to fumigate their houses but such measures are not effective for the long term.

“Fumigation can be effective if there are many dengue-bearing mosquitoes but it’s not possible to fumigate very often,” he said.

“The Department of Health has increased efforts to provide information about dengue fever and how to prevent it at schools since May,” Dr Aung Tun said.

“We have also fumigated schools in Yangon, Mandalay and Mawlamyine.”
During School Health Week, students will be given medical check-ups that will include measuring their height and weight, he said.

Dr Aung Tun said more than 5 million primary students throughout the country were given deworming tablets in June and July in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund. The tablets will be provided again in December.

“The project began last year and is expected to continue until 2010,” he said, adding that the most common health problem among students is oral hygiene, followed by anaemia and seasonal diseases such as diarrhoea and dengue fever.

School Health Week has been held in Myanmar every year since 2000.