Awareness-Raising Activities to Identify Children with Short Stature

Background: Although short stature is sometimes treatable in children, family members do not always realize that their children have short stature. To develop better educational materials for identifying short stature, we conducted a questionnaire survey on children with short stature. Using the results of the survey, we revised educational activities regarding short stature. Methods: To assess the effectiveness of the revised activities, we examined changes in the numbers of consultations before and after the changes to the educational activities, the height of children examined after such changes, the test implementation rate, and the test results. Results: After the start of direct promotion for school nursing staff in 2015, the number of outpatients with short stature who visited the hospital significantly increased (16.1/year before 2014 vs. 68.8/year after 2015; p = 0.02). The number of patients hospitalized for a growth hormone secretion stimulation test also significantly increased, from 9.3/year before 2014 to 47.0/year after 2015 (p = 0.02). However, 35% of families did not want to subject their child to a growth hormone stimulating test, even if their child was extremely short. Conclusions: Our revised educational activities for short stature among school nursing staff, school physicians, and nurses at health centers were more effective than conventional activities consisting of public relations magazines and lectures for the general public. It is important to provide proper explanations to enable a better understanding of hormone therapy.