The Importance and Strategies for Improving School Health in Deprived Areas

Schools in deprived and underserved areas face unique challenges in promoting student health, often due to factors such as poverty, limited resources, and geographic isolation. Despite these difficulties, they offer crucial opportunities for intervention to address health inequities that persist among vulnerable children and adolescents. This narrative review underscores the significance of school health programs in such contexts, focusing on their role in tackling issues like malnutrition, infectious diseases, poor hygiene, mental health concerns, and low educational attainment. Evidence from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), rural regions, and marginalized communities shows that school-based health initiatives, particularly those aligned with the World Health Organization's Health Promoting Schools (HPS) framework, can significantly improve both physical and mental well-being. These programs help reduce absenteeism, enhance academic performance, and contribute to breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty. Key challenges include inadequate infrastructure, limited teacher training, and weak policy implementation. However, successful strategies, such as school feeding, deworming, hygiene promotion, and mental health literacy, have shown positive outcomes. The review advocates for prioritizing policy support, teacher capacity building, and community partnerships, while focusing on scalable, equity-driven interventions to ensure every child benefits from quality health promotion.

کلیدواژه ها:

school health promotion ، deprived areas ، Health Promoting Schools ، health equity ، low- and middle-income countries ، rural health