Review of National Health Screening Program for Infant and Children in Korea

National health screening program for infants and children in Korea was launched in November 2007 to cope with current health issues, such as high prevalence of accidents and incremental trends of developmental disorders and obesity. It is a kind of population surveillance systems which contains history taking, physical examination, anthropometric measurements, screening for visual acuity and questionnaires with anticipatory guidance. This program has been successfully implanted as one of the primary clinical services. First year's rate of participation was 35.3%. For the next few years, participation rate should be improved and quality control may be needed especially about counseling with the anticipatory guidance. Sociocultural changes and legislation should be tried to encourage double-income couples to bring their children for this periodic examination. Abnormal results were relatively high in the babies with the history of prematurity and low economical status. Thus, these groups could be the targets of the public health supports. To meet the future computerization of the health screening system, it is needed to develop the Korean developmental screening tools to replace K-ASQ (Korean Ages & Stages Questionnaires), which is currently under foreign copyright. Regular revision of the protocols and questionnaires are also important to maintain this screening system as evidence-based.