Evaluation of Public School Health and Its Accordance with School Health National Regulations: A Case Study in Kermanshah, Iran

Background: Providing a favorable health status is of high importance for educational buildings and in particular schools. The aim of this study was to evaluate the school health and its accordance with national school health regulations in Kermanshah city, Iran. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study, the researchers randomized 200 schools and gathered data using a checklist comprising 87 questions, 74 of them on environmental health status and 14 of them on safety status of schools. This checklist designed based on the school health guidelines (developed by the health and work environment center of the Ministry of health, treatment and medical education). In this study, the researchers used only the former and filled out the checklist through visiting schools and interviewing with their staff. The collected data were transferred to the statistics software SPSS version 16.0 and Excel version 2010 and the outputs were presented in tables. Results: Out of the 200 schools surveyed, 66.5% were old(structural dating of more than 10 years), and only 33.5% (67 schools) were new (structural dating of less than 10 years). Among these schools, 99.5% (199 schools) provide healthy tap water places, 98.5% (197 schools) healthy hand washing facilities and 100% (200 schools) healthy toilets. The average level of school buffets health was observed58.5%. The health and optimization status of the studied schools was 92-100% in accordance with article 13 of the regulation. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, there were some problems that include the health status of school buffets, classrooms and toilets, as well as the safety status of theinvestigated schools, so that attention to the health of schools should be among the priorities of the government and the authorities.