The Fit for School (FIT) programme integrates school health and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene interventions, which are implemented by the Ministries of Education in four Southeast Asian countries. This paper describes the findings of a Health Outcome Study, which aimed to assess the two-year effect of the FIT programme on the parasitological, weight, and oral health status of children attending schools implementing the programme in Cambodia, Indonesia and Lao PDR. A total of 1847 children (mean age = 6.7 years, range 6.0–8.0 years) participated in the baseline survey. Of these, 1499 children were available for follow-up examination – 478, 486 and 535 children in Cambodia, Indonesia and Lao PDR, respectively. In all three countries, children in intervention schools had a lower increment in the number of decayed, missing and filled permanent teeth between baseline and follow-up, in comparison to children in controls schools. The preventive fraction was 24% at average. The prevalence of soil-transmitted helminth infection (which was unexpectedly low at baseline), the prevalence of thinness and the prevalence of odontogenic infections did not significantly differ between baseline and follow-up, nor between intervention and control schools.

Bibliographic information

Duijster, D., Monse, B., Dimaisip-Nabuab, J., Djuharnoko, P., Heinrich-Weltzien, R., Hobdell, M., Kromeyer-Hauschild, K., Kunthearith, Y., Mijares-Majini, M.C., Siegmund, N., Soukhanouvong, P., Benzian, H. (2017). ‘Fit for school’ – a school-based water, sanitation and hygiene programme to improve child health: Results from a longitudinal study in Cambodia, Indonesia and Lao PDR BMC Public Health

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CambodiaIndonesiaLao Peoples Democratic Republic

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