Visiting again? Subjective well-being of children in elementary school and repeated visits to school health nurses.
BACKGROUND
Children with vague complaints are without chronic illness, and who repeatedly visit the school nurse may be at risk for limited academic success. This study compares student reports of subjective well-being between children who do and do not repeatedly visit the school nurse with vague complaints.


METHODS
Children in grades 4 through 6 completed the School Well-Being Profile-American English (SWBP-AE), a questionnaire with 4 well-being subscales: health status, school environment, social relationships, and school as a means of self-fulfillment. School nurses extracted data on clinic visits from clinic records. Logistic regression explored associations between well-being subscales and repeated visits to the school nurse.


RESULTS
Of the 320 students participating in the study, 33 (12.04%) students made repeated visits to the school nurse. Perception of health status (OR = 2.072; 95% CI = 1.037, 4.163) was the only significant (p < .05) predictor of repeated visits to the nurse.


CONCLUSIONS
Children with poor perception of their health status are more likely to repeatedly visit the school nurse. Children's perceptions of their school environment, social relationships, or school as a means of self-fulfillment are not statistically significant predictors of repeated visits to the school nurse.
National Institute of Nursing Research, National Institutes of Health, Division of Intramural Research, 10 Center Drive, 2-1339, Bethesda, MD 20892.
Cynthia A
CA
Leaver
D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D009726:Nurses; D044469:Racial Groups; D012572:School Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012737:Sex Factors
academic achievement; predictors of school nurse visits; school nurse; student somatic complaints