[Physical examinations of school children: follow-up of detected problems]

A study of prevalent sensorial pathology (visual and/or auditive) is carried out among first-year primary school students in Zaragoza city by means of a follow-up of those cases with possible pathologies detected during the School Health Campaign of 1986-87. The questionnaire sent out gathered the following information: sex of the child examined; prior information in the family about possible problem detected; existence of family history of sensorial pathologies;: child's awareness and manifestation of problem's existence; final solution of the problem detected; place where solution was given; confirmation of the diagnosis given by the school inspection teams, treatments prescribed; specialists consulted and need for later revision of the sensorial problem. We received 403 valid questionnaires which make up the final sample, on which computerised statistical processing was carried out by means of the chi square test with a 5 por 100 error margin to check the dependence of all the variables contained in the questionnaire. Systematically performed health inspections promote infant health and prevent illness. Their value resides not so much in the extent that they note possible pathological cases, a task which might be taken on by Primary Health Care, but in the fact that they provide indices of results which when studied and analysed indicate the prevalence thus giving a starting point for more specific programmes to be developed.