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Dear Colleagues,

Infectious diseases are among the leading causes of death for children under five years of age, even if global progress has been made in reducing child death and disability for preventable, common infectious diseases. To limit infectious diseases circulation, updated epidemiology evaluations are required for the implementation of appropriate immunization programs alongside reinforcing public health policy programs, identifying which public health interventions are effective in reducing morbidity, and mortality and health inequalities from infectious diseases amongst children. Immunization strategies are a useful strategy to avoid the significant burden of preventable infectious disease incidence and complications and should be reinforced from either a medical or economic viewpoint. Communication strategies are also important to set and spread effective health messages to the population addressing perception of individual risk for the disease. Finally, it is also important to address one of the major issue faced by our society: antibiotic resistance. Efforts in reducing infectious disease in children may be of help also in countering antibiotic resistance.

Dr. Elena Bozzola
Guest Editor

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Keywords

infectious diseases
children
immunization
prevention
vaccines
health

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Research

18 pages, 3463 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Prevalence of Infectious Diseases in Children at Preschool Education Institutions and Stakeholder Opinions

by Gonca Kurt and Hasan Uğur Serdaroğlu

Children 2024, 11(4), 447; https://doi.org/10.3390/children11040447 - 08 Apr 2024

Viewed by 582

Abstract

Preschool education institutions, where children have close contact and social interactions, can serve as potential environments for the transmission of infectious diseases. This issue poses a significant health concern, impacting both individual and public well-being. Thus, the present research set out to determine the prevalence of infectious diseases in preschool children and the views of parents and teachers on the prevention of infectious diseases. The study employed a mixed-method approach and involved 397 parents and 46 preschool teachers. The study was survey-based via in-person interviews. The results revealed that after they started school (almost in 5 months), children with a mean age of 4.7 ± 0.5 years experienced illness approximately 3.5 ± 2.0 times, of whom 91.5% used antibiotics. The prevalence of infectious diseases was found to be associated with the child’s being born at term, maternal education level, and the public/private status of preschool institutions. The presence of a sick child in the classroom elicits negative emotions from both teachers and parents. They recommend that studies on education, safety, hygiene, school health, health screenings, regulation of the learning environment, legal regulations, and school exclusion policies be carried out to prevent infectious diseases. When children with infectious diseases come to school, nearly half of the teachers admit them to the classroom due to various reasons and pressures. Parents request teachers to monitor medication, control sweating, and use a nebulizer for their sick children. Some of the teachers meet these requests, but they claim that the educational process is negatively affected. At preschool education institutions, the risk factors of infectious diseases have a complex structure and can be influenced by variables related to teachers, children, parents and the institution itself. Infectious diseases not only pose a threat to health but also impact teachers’ and parents’ emotions, teacher–child relationships, and the overall atmosphere within schools and classrooms. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Infectious Diseases in Children)

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