Health Component: A Sub-Study within the /Un Buen Comienzo/ (UBC) Project

Health prevention to promote school attendance, learning and healthy development

In 2008-2009 with support from a DRCLAS Collaborative Research Grant lead dy Dr. Judith Palfrey, Dr. Mary Catherine Arbour, and Hirokazu  Yoshikawa, will be developing the health component for UBC. The health component is designed to equip preschool teachers with specific skills and  materials to address health problems that impact children’s learning and long-term development. It responds to the predominant health problems  affecting preschool-aged children in Chile, including respiratory illnesses, overweight/obesity and well child visits. Its content was determined after  thorough review of international and national literature, discussion with national authorities, local experts and preschool teachers themselves.

The goal is  to evaluate whether preschool teachers can integrate health interventions into their curricular offerings and document improvements in children’s access  to care and changes in health promoting behaviors. The health component will be executed within UBC’s monthly cycles of teacher training. Each monthly cycle includes one day of training, followed by weekly in-classroom sessions of teacher coaching, feedback and reflection.

The aim is also to determine whether the intervention results in improved access to pediatric primary care and changes in teachers’ nutritional knowledge and children's behaviors; among a subset of children with obstructive respiratory disease, (asthma or bronchitis), to determine the extent to which the intervention,  compared with the control condition, results in better respiratory function and decreased absenteeism.

Participating Harvard Faculty: Judith Palfrey, /T. Berry Brazelton Professor of Pediatrics, Professor in the Department of Maternal and Child Health in the Faculty of Public Health; /Hirokazu Yoshikawa, /Professor, Graduate School of Education; / and Dr. Mary Catherine Arbour, /Senior Resident, Howard Hiatt Global Health Equity Residency in Internal Medicine, Brigham and Women´s Hospital, Harvard University.

Collaborator: Dra. Paula Fernández Z. Médico Familiar Infantil. Coordinadora de Salud Un Buen Comienzo-Fundación Educacional Oportunidad.