Health And Behavior Of Children Of Migrant Workers Is A Comparative Study

[Objectives]1. The health definition was not only no disease or weak but also should include adaptation of physical, mental and social ability under the medical model. Nowadays, health status researches about migrant workers' children in the medical field were limited at physical level, for example, growth and development, health care, planned immunization and so on, paid less attention to mental level and were lack of comprehensive evaluation of their health status. This study would synthetically evaluate health current situation of floating children by combining physiology, mentality and social adaptation, thus offered the abundant basic materials for the continuing relevant researches.2. All researches in the medical field showed that the comparison studies between floating children and urban children were more than those of between floating children and rural children, but were lack of transverse contrast floating children, urban children and rural children. The second aim of this study was to comprehend and find out the reasons which caused the differences of areas and population by comparing different health levels of floating children, urban children and rural children, so that could establish the health intervening measures for different children..3. Up to now, limited by the research methods, the researches about children of migrant workers in the medical field took quantitative analysis as the core and were lack of relevant qualitative analysis. So, in order to deeply show their health problems, this paper introduced the quantitative study method of sociology and integrated sociology angle and medicine angle to explore extensively that influenced the important factors of floating children's health status from many aspects, for instance, living environment, study and living style, and provided evidences which the government could purposefully make the management policies of migrant workers and then improve the health status and living conditions of their children and realize the 'program' requirements.[Methods]According to principles of stratified and cluster sampling, Xihu district and Xiaoshan district were randomly selected as study areas, then students from 3 elementary schools for floating children and 3 elementary schools for urban children were sampling among schools registered in the bureau of education in this two districts, at last, 4 rural elementary schools for rural children in term of different administration levels of villages were selected after rural survey place was established on the sample analysis foundations about children of migrant workers. This investigation selected 4368 children who were physically healthy and normally intellective in this ten elementary schools as research objects. In this paper, floating children, urban children and rural children were respectively defined as: the first was studying students of elementary schools who had rural registered permanent residence and lived in Hangzhou for 3 and more months, the second was studying students of elementary schools who had urban registered permanent residence of Hangzhou and lived in Hangzhou for 3 and more months, the last was studying students of elementary schools who had rural registered permanent residence of Kaihua and lived in Kaihua for 3 and more months. Moreover, the database was establish and enrolled by Epidata3.0 software and analyzed by SPSS for Windowl2.0 software package.[Contents]Based on references and pre-investigation, the health status questionnaires of childrendesigned by oneself involved four parts------general information, living conditions andcharacteristics of family, study and living, self-feeling;behavior problems of children were estimated by Rutter Parent Questionnaire and Rutter Teacher Questionnaire;physical examinations divided into assessments of physical indexes and examination of common diseases, the former were height, weight and chest circumstance, the latter were overweight, obesity, edenial caries and low vision.[Results] 1. Health statusWhen the constitutes of age and gender were similar, all physical indexes of floating children, urban children and rural children were significantly different and increased along with the accretion of age;no matter what male or female, urban children's curves of three physical indexes—height, weight and chest circumference were higher than the others in all age groups , the distance of height curve between children of migrant workers and rural children gradually increased after from nine to ten years old and the curve of floating children was close to that of urban children inch by inch;the differences of bodily form in three groups were highly significant, it was big for urban children and small for floating and rural children;with the same proportions of age and gender, BMI index curve of all age groups in three groups had increasing tendency with the augmentation of age and urban children's curves were higher than the others and male children's discrepancy between city and country was more than female children;according to the proportion under moderate growth rank, urban children was lowest in all physical indexes in three groups, similarly, children of migrant workers were highest in height and weight, rural children was biggest in chest circumference.2. Common diseasesExcept for female children of from 7 to 9 years old, the differences of the detected rates of overweight in three groups no matter what ages and genders were highly significant. Moreover, when the constitutes of age and gender were similar, the prevalence rates of obesity, dental caries and low vision in three groups were highly significantly different and these rates in urban children were mostly highest in three groups .3. Mental health problemThe prevalence rates of school behavior problems and family behavior problems in floating children, urban children and rural children were highly significantly different, but the differences of proportion about the type of behavior problems weren't significant;the detected rate of comprehensive behavior problem in rural children was the highest and the results of two questionnaires about behavior problems showed low consistency;the significant gender differences of school behavior problems and family behavior problems in three groups were found and also male higher than female;the detected rates of schoolbehavior problems in grades in three groups were highly significantly different, but those of family behavior problems were not significantly different except for children of migrant children;significant positive correlates were male, urban and higher grades for school behavior problem and male, urban and antisocial behavior, male and neurotic behavior for family behavior problem, but all variances and mixed behavior had negative correlations for family behavior problem. 4. Survival status 4.1 Living circumstancesThe differences of proportions of which live with parent, numbers of living together, having own room and affiliated equipments were highly significantly-, the significant difference of proportions in the occupational constitute of parents, educational mode and family atmosphere in three group were found;mean time of doing homework and mean playtime after school, proportions of which thinking homework excessively, being afraid of homework or exam, examining homework everyday, being bullied classmates in schools, running out of class rooms to play after class, main activities after school, having harmonious connection with classmates, being worried about teachers' criticism were highly significantly different in three groups;the differences of mean of sleep time and proportion of which sleep time exceeding 10 hours everyday were highly significantly, according to the sequence of quantity , they were respectively rural children, urban children and children of migrant workers;proportions of preference of protein and vegetable in three groups were highly significantly different, the highest was urban children and the lowest was floating children except for preference of egg;proportions of knowledge of KFC or Mcdonald's and having them in three groups were highly significantly different, urban children was obviously higher than the others and floating children was also higher than rural children in these proportions;the differences of proportions of having milk everyday in three groups were highly significantly, that was urban children evidently higher than floating children and rural children;the highly significant differences of proportions and quantities of having pocket money each week in three groups were found, the former was highest in children of migrant workers and thelatter was highest in urban children;quantities of money given to children as a lunar New Year gift by relatives and friends each year in three groups were highly significantly different, urban children was obviously higher than children of migrant children and rural children, but the difference between floating children and rural children t wasn't significant;proportions of degrees about perceived-health evaluation in three groups wasn't significantly different, but the highly significant differences of proportions of self-feeling happy and thinking their parents work laboriously were found and rural children were the highest in these two proportions. 4.2 Evaluation of health statusThe result of multi-factors analysis about evaluation of children's health status showed that male, low age, children of migrant workers, no behavioral problem of family and having-milk-everyday children had an positive correlation with their evaluation.[Conclusion]1. Health statusChildren of migrant workders was still lower than urban children in the physical growth after living in city and their nutritional status was comparatively bad , at the same time, they mostly belonged to type of "bean sprout" .2. Common diseasesThe prevalence rates of overweight, obesity, dental caries and low vision in floating children hadn't obviously increased, but they had become a high-risk population in city.3. Mental health problemThe prevalence rates of behavior problem in floating children of migrant workers had a obvious difference with those of urban children, at the same time, it also had gender and grade discrepancies. Positive correlates were male, urban registered permanent residence for behavior problems.4. Survival statusFloating children's living condition and equipment of durable goods in city were worsethan urban children , sometimes rural children would even be better to them. The closed residential section based on their origin of hometown limited the chances of contact and communion between children of migrant workers and citizen and increased the difficulty that they were in harmony with city-mainstream society. Children of migrant workers appeared a lot of adaptation problems when they lived in city. Effected by their floating living, comparing with urban children , children of migrant workers' evaluation about living satisfaction was low, but added the responsibility for family. 5. Domestic education and health thinkingParents of floating children was obviously lower than those of urban children in domestic education and health thinking and the differences mainly showed that they preferred to take male children to city, not female children and educated their children by rude methods and gave the no-rational food to them, and so on.[ Recommendations ]1. Heighten the cognition and importance to floating children's health problems;2. Strengthen leading function and establish feasible policies and corresponding measures;3. Establish the register system which floating children under 16 years would be registered and brought in the governmental examination system;4. Set up health management system based on inhabitant population;5. Reinforce the net construction of maternal health care and children's health care and broaden;6. Improve floating children's living circumstance and strengthen supervision of their housing;7. Upbuild the contingent relieving system of floating children;8. Enhance the migrant workers' self-management ability;9. Dug out the inherent ability of government and improve service capacity for migrant workers.