Promoting Public Health >>Promoting Public Health among the general public>> Prevention Campaigns for the Prevention of Back Disorders >>Health Education Campaign For School Children

HEALTH EDUCATION CAMPAIGN FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN.

Background.

Back ailments are the most common health problem in industrialized countries and affect 80% of the general population at one time or other in their lives. As opposed to what was traditionally believed, these ailments have been shown to be common among school children; up to 70% of them have had some back problem before the age of 17.

Some methods of prevention and treatment used to be recommended traditionally, even though their effectiveness had not been sufficiently evaluated. Under more scrupulous analysis, these methods have been shown to be counterproductive. Thus for example, it has been shown that the obsession to avoid exertion increases the risk of suffering back ailments, that radiography has little value in diagnosing their cause, that bed rest is ineffective and counterproductive as a treatment, and that surgery of the vertebral spine is indicated in fewer than 1% of the patients with back pain and is counterproductive when performed in inappropriate cases.

It is possible that some of these traditional recommendations are responsible for the increased frequency of back disorders and the costs they entail, since they have led to mistaken attitudes and counterproductive treatments. Furthermore, the repetition of these recommendations over the years has generated erroneous concepts about back disorders among the general public. These mistaken ideas accompany attitudes that increase the risk of suffering back ailments and beliefs that generate resistances in patients, making it harder for their doctors to treat them effectively.

However, facts demonstrate that clear, reliable and up-to-date information can reduce the risk of suffering back disorders and even diminish the disability associated with them and hasten recovery. Consequently it is important to organize campaigns for the prevention of back ailments that communicate information of this nature.

With this aim in mind, the Foundation has carried out a pilot prevention campaign for back problems aimed at adolescents on the island of Mallorca.

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Objective.

To carry out a campaign for prevention of back problems among adolescents.

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Description.

The campaign carried out as a pilot program in Mallorca was focused on school children and consisted of:

1. Distribution of free "Guides for Back Care" among the interested general public. The "Guide for Back Care" by the Kovacs Foundation is a document that contains information on how to maintain a healthy posture. It teaches how to perform daily tasks, as well as those related to recreation, work or household chores, reducing the load on the back. The norms it explains decrease the risk of suffering back ailments and reduce the limitations of those people who already have back problems.

2. Distribution of the CD-ROM, "Guide for Back Care" in the computer rooms of schools and educational centers. The CD-ROM includes information on the back, its disorders, treatments and mechanisms for prevention, including exercises and rules for postural hygiene. It contains more information than the paper version and its multimedia technology and interactive character make it more enjoyable.

3. Publication of public service advertisements in newspapers and magazines with order forms to request the guides free of charge.

4. Training of monitors at the schools and centers. The campaign monitors in each school were proposed by the center itself and they voluntarily accepted their position. Specialized doctors from the Kovacs Foundation taught them in depth the rules of postural hygiene, as well as the attitude to take should back pain occur. The monitors helped the students to practice these norms, ensuring that the campaign contents remained in effect and up to date beyond its conclusion.

5. Lectures at the schools, aimed at the students, in which they were told in general terms what the back is, how it works, proper postures for their daily activities in order to prevent back pain and the attitude to take should pain appear. The talks were addressed to students between 14 and 16 years old and paid special attention to the activities most common among that age group. They were given by doctors from the Kovacs Foundation specialized in back disorders.

6. Distribution of pamphlets on postural hygiene aimed at adolescents. They were triptych design, extracted from the "Guide for Back Care" that reviewed the most important rules of healthy posture for adolescents.

7. The traveling classroom. The traveling classroom was a practical workshop that brought together the elements found in the daily life of an adolescent, such as chairs, desks, backpacks and computers, schoolbooks and materials. Specialized doctors from the Kovacs Foundation supervised how to use these elements from school, teaching them interactively how to do it in the healthiest way for their backs.

8. Lectures for adults tied to the school or center (parents, teachers and staff) in which, in non-technical language and with the support of audiovisuals, they were shown: what the back is and how it works, the rules for good posture that reduce the risk of back pain during daily activities, the attitude to assume should pain appear and the methods, indications and risks of treatments currently available. The lectures were given by doctors from the Kovacs Foundation specialized in back disorders and were based on a compendium of the most up to date scientific studies. Here too, the "Guides for Back Care" were distributed.

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Along with the Kovacs Foundation, the following have participated in this project.

The Departments of Health and Consumer Issues and of Education and Culture of the Autonomous Government of the Balearic Islands, the Official College of Physicians of the Balearic Islands, the Territorial Office of the National Health Institute (INSALUD) of Balearic Islands, and the Federation of Parents' Associations (FAPA and CONCAPA).

It was co-funded by the Kovacs Foundation and the Matthias Kühn-Illes Balears Foundation.

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Status and Results.

The campaign was begun in September 1999 and ended in June 2000. It was offered free of charge to all primary and secondary schools in Mallorca and included:

• 62 lectures, 62 informal talks and 30 traveling classrooms in the 32 schools and institutes that decided to participate.

• The training of 36 monitors to oversee postural hygiene and prevention of back pain at these schools and institutes.

• The delivery of 36 CD-ROM's with information on the back, its ailments, their causes and mechanisms for their prevention, for the computer rooms of the 32 participating schools.

• The publication of public service announcements in the press.

• The free distribution of 9,702 pamphlets on healthy posture adapted for adolescents.

• The free distribution of 9,620 "Guides for Back Care" among the adults who requested them.

To evaluate the campaign's effectiveness and the degree to which the participants absorbed the new knowledge and abandoned obsolete concepts, the students took a brief exam on aspects on the prevention of back ailments before and after the campaign. Before the campaign, only 20.32% of the students passed the test, afterwards, 91.15% responded correctly to all of the questions.