Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.
About School Health
Your child spends more time at school than anywhere else except home. Schools can have a major effect on children's health. Schools can teach children about health, and promote healthy behaviors. Physical education classes give children a chance to get exercise.
Schools work to:
- Prevent risky behaviors such as alcohol and tobacco use or bullying and cyberbullying
- Encourage healthy habits like exercise and healthy eating
- Deal with specific health problems in students, such as asthma, obesity and infectious diseases
The school building and environment should be a safe and healthy place for your child.
It sits within Children and Teenagers.
When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.
Research on School Health
735 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.
What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.
Research currently under way
- A Mentalization Based Prevention Program to Foster Well-Being and Mental Health in Pre-Adolescent Children and Their FamiliesSvenja Taubner
- OLYMPIC-S: Outcomes of a Life-stYle Multicomponent Physical-activity Intervention in Children - School-based Randomized Controlled TrialFundacio d'Investigacio en Atencio Primaria Jordi Gol i Gurina
- Earth of Joy_10477MCentre hospitalier de Ville-Evrard, France
- Evaluation of the Gambling Habits of Adolescents and Young Adults Post-COVID-19 and Implementation of a Digital Escape Room Intervention for Preventing Gambling in High School StudentsHospital Miguel Servet
- Testing Multi-level Scale-Up Strategies: Ugandan School SystemNYU Langone Health
- Community-Based Intervention to Reduce Problematic Video Game Use in First-Year Secondary School Students: A Cluster Randomised Controlled TrialFundacin Biomedica Galicia Sur
Research already completed
- SAPLAI : Assessing the faiSAbility of a Peer-to-peer Contraceptive Education Program on Social Networks Aimed at 15- to 19-year-old High School Students in GuAdeloupe and La RéunIonCentre Hospitalier Universitaire de la Réunion
- Active Schools in Chile: Impact on Fitness, Physical Activity, and Sports ParticipationUniversidad de Santiago de Chile
- Gamified Exergaming Program in Primary SchoolUniversity of Jaén
- Mindfulness and Compassion Program for the Improvement of Emotional and Behavioral Problems, Academic Performance and School Climate in Students in the Last Cycle of Primary Education.Universidad de Zaragoza
- Health Behavior in School-Age Children: NEXT Longitudinal Study 2009-2016Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
- Pilot Cluster RCT of an Indirect Contact Mental Health Literacy Program for 5th-Grade StudentsTokyo University
Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.
Where to read more
Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.
Start Here
- Adolescent and School HealthCenters for Disease Control and Prevention
- Healthy SchoolsCenters for Disease Control and Prevention
Prevention and Risk Factors
- Reducing the Spread of Illness in Child CareAmerican Academy of Pediatrics
Related Issues
- 10 Ways to Help Your Child Succeed in Elementary SchoolNemours Foundation
- Backpack SafetyNemours Foundation
- Health Problems at SchoolAmerican Academy of Pediatrics
- Playground Safety (For Parents)Nemours Foundation
- School RefusalAmerican Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Statistics and Research
- About School ViolenceCenters for Disease Control and Prevention
- Adolescent and School Health: Data and StatisticsCenters for Disease Control and Prevention
- Report on Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2023Department of Education
- Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance SystemCenters for Disease Control and Prevention
Medical subject headings
Clinicians and researchers index this subject under School Health Services. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.
This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for School Health, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.