Welcome to University of Iowa Health Care Today. Children and adolescents often are required to undergo a physical before they can enroll in a new school or participate in sports. Dr. Britt Marcussen joins me now by phone to tell us more about school physicals. Dr. Marcussen is a clinical assistant professor and family medicine physician at UI Family Care, North Liberty. Dr. Marcussen,
What is the purpose of a school physical?
The purpose is really to get an overall picture of any child’s health, and that would include looking in areas of development, both how they’re doing cognitively or in school; as well as their social development and physical development. We look at areas such as nutrition, sleep, what their diet’s like, the sort of activities they participate in. We often provide what we call anticipatory guidance, which is talking about things like making sure the kids are wearing their sunscreen when they’re out in summer months; wearing their seatbelts; bicycle helmets; those sorts of things. And of course we update any immunizations that might be due.
How often is a school physical recommended?
I often tell parents to bring their kids in annually for a school physical starting at the pre-kindergarten exam.
You say pre-kindergarten—what exactly are you looking for in a youngster that age?
At that time it’s a good time to bring their immunizations up to date. The state of Iowa requires certain immunizations at certain intervals and times, and in order to enroll in the public schools, we have to document immunity to various things and it’s often times the time to get boosters for those.
At what age should children receive a school physical?
The kindergarten exam can be done at age 4 or 5. The immunizations that are required have to be done after the age of 4, so any time after their fourth birthday and before they start kindergarten would be a good time to come in.
What should a parent bring with them to their child’s physical?
We just got done talking about immunizations, and that’s the most important thing. If they have a copy of their child’s immunizations, that’s very helpful. If they have a copy of any lead screen that was done when they were a child or infant—that’s now required by the state of Iowa—then that can save them a blood draw for lead tests and if they bring immunization records, it will also save them some shots.
Typically, what does a school physical include?
Well, it includes talking about the child’s overall health, the parent’s assessment of that. We do a thorough physical examination; and then we provide, like I mentioned before, any anticipatory guidance. Of course based on the child’s age, we’re not going to talk about the same things with a 5-year-old that we might talk about with a 15-year-old.
Why is it important for children to have these routine physicals?
Lots of things change over the years. Family histories change, so for instance, when you’re five, everyone in your family may be healthy. By the time you’re 15, your father or grandfather may have had a heart attack, indicating some risk for that, and we might want to screen for cholesterol or something like that. Or high blood pressure may have developed in a parent that we’d want to screen for in a child. So those things change over time and the children, of course, change as time goes by. The demands of school and things like that change and sometimes we pick up on developmental or social problems that crop up along the way.
How do parents go about scheduling a physical for their child?
Pretty easy, you can just call our office if you want to schedule a physical with us; or any of the primary care offices in our community. |
