Health, safety, and environmental status of Iranian school: A systematic review.

ABSTRACT

Schools are considered as a first community, which plays an essential role in developing the child's life skills; thus, it is important to provide safety and health in these places. Accordingly, health, safety, and environmental (HSE) issues in schools are among the important issues that should be considered. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to review the studies conducted on the HSE status of Iranian schools. A systematic search of databases, including Google Scholar, SID, PubMed, IRANDOC, MEDLIB, and Science Direct, was performed using keywords by March 2020. The reference lists of key studies were also scanned to find additional articles that are suitable to include in this study. Twenty-five studies met the inclusion criteria. The results of the studies showed that the surveyed schools had favorable status in terms of HSE indicators, and only 12% of the studies reported poor status. About 88% of schools had favorable or average condition. Some cases, such as lack of safe emergency exit and inadequate ergonomic seats, have been reported, and some differences have been observed in schools in rural and urban areas. The results showed that the health and safety situation in most of the urban schools in Iran is good and relatively favorable. However, there have also been some problems; hence, the implementation of integrated HSE management is imperative to improve the status of schools. Personal health education and safety education are also recommended.