A Comparative Study on The Health Problems of School Age Children in Jakarta and Hokkaido

Abstract

Comparison of the prevalence of disabilities and diseases, using the same method for health examination of school age children in Jakarta, Indonesia and Hokkaido, Japan was carried out with a view to develop a health-planning program. Thus, this study describes the differences of the prevalence of disabilities and diseases of 6 to 12-year-old school age children in Jakarta and Hokkaido, and shows that the prevalence of excessive nutrition (2.1%), visual defects (20.3%), conjunctivitis (3.2%), dental caries (93.1%) and oral diseases (16.3%) in Hokkaido were significantly higher (p<0,0001) than those in Jakarta. By contrast, the prevalence rate of malnutrition (1.2%) and infectious skin disease (0.9%) in Jakarta were significantly higher (p<0,0001) than those in Hokkaido. These differences indicated that school age children in both areas might be affected by the conditions of climate, GNP, hygiene as well as the education level.