Teachers assessment of asthma-friendliness of primary schools in Abuja

Abstract

Introduction: Children should be protected and safe in school. An important disease like asthma, the leading chronic respiratory disease among children globally, should occupy a place of priority in a school’s health programme. Therefore, the aim of thestudy was to determine how asthma-friendly schools  are in Abuja, Nigeria from a teacher’s perspective.

Materials and Methods: This was a cross sectional, questionnaire- based survey carried out among  andomly selected teachers in public primary schools. Asthmafriendliness of schools was assessed using the “How asthmafriendly is your school”  questionnaire.

Results: Of the 403 teachers who participated in the study, majority were females 249(61.8%), mean age was 35 years SD ±8 years, school  settings were mainly urban 14 (58.3%) and majority teachers located in urban settings 251 (62.3%). The teachers scored the    schools poorly on questions  about availability of school policies on asthma care for the children in or out of emergency situations, quick access to asthma medications at school, availability of a full-time nurse or responsible personnel for children with asthma, training of teachers on asthma and monitoring of Air Quality  Index. Adherence was scored high on questions referring to recommendations about keeping the school environment tobacco smoke free and  preventing exposures to asthma triggers such as excessive dust. Majority of the schools had a poor asthmafriendliness level 300 (74.4%) based on the  teachers report.

Conclusion: Given the importance of asthma among children, concerted efforts should be made to ensure that schools in Abuja, Nigeria  are asthma-friendly. This can be achieved by strengthening school health programmes.