Author(s)

Tamie Sugawara^1*, Yasushi Ohkusa¹, Michiko Nohora²

¹National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan.
²Tokyo Kasei University, Tokyo, Japan.

Background: Infection transmission among them occurs easily and sometimes causes outbreaks at facilities where children live in groups. Early response is necessary for infection control measures to avoid larger clusters. In Japan, (Nursery) School Absenteeism Surveillance System ((N)SASSy), which is a kind of school absenteeism surveillance, has activated since 2007 and covers about 60% of all schools and 40% of all nursery schools in 2017. Objective: The objective of the present paper is investigation and demonstration of how caregivers receive information related to infectious diseases in Japan and how (N)SASSy contributes health of children. Method: We randomly selected subjects with children by pre-fecture in October, 2017. The survey questionnaire asked background information and information about infectious diseases to maintain health in children. We regressed health concern variables on background information and information provision situation about community outbreaks using weighted logistic regression. Results: We received responses from 1172 people. Estimation results showed higher concern about a facility providing information about community outbreak. Caregivers whose children attend facilities provided about community outbreak or covered (N)SASSy significantly higher opportunity to arrange a schedule when a child has a high fever. Discussion: The obtained results demonstrated that activation in (N)SASSy affects the possibility of arranging a schedule when a child has a high fever. This capability might improve community health.

School Absenteeism Surveillance, Outbreak Information, Families with (Pre)School Children, Nursery School, Infection Control

Sugawara, T. , Ohkusa, Y. and Nohora, M. (2019) Outbreak Information Delivery to Families with (Pre)School Children and Its Contribution. Journal of Biosciences and Medicines, 7, 31-43. doi: 10.4236/jbm.2019.712004.