ABSTRACT
This cross-sectional study was designed to find out the prevalence rates of various nail disorders among school children. The study was conducted during the period between December 1999 and April 2000 in Qadha Al-Karkh / Baghdad. The sample was randomly taken from 4 primary schools and 3 intermediate schools and it was comprised of 4010 school children [equal number of males and Females, 2005 each] aged 6-15 years. Each pupil was asked about any nail problem and his or her nails were examined with a 3X magnifying lens to detect any nail disorder. The study has showed that the overall prevalence rate of nail disorders among school children was 74.6% [72.8% fur males and 76.4% for females]. Leukonychia was the commonest nail disorder encountered during this study [33.8%] and nail biting was the second most common disorder [18.5%]. Other nail disorders, in order of decreasing frequency, were idiopathic nail pitting [7.5%], hang nail [4.5%], habit tic deformity [2.8%], subungual haematoma [2.5%], paronychia [1.7%], onychomycosis [1.5%], periungual warts [0.9%], ingrowing toe-nail [0.6%], psoriatic nail changes [0.4%] and koilonychia [0.2%]. Nail disorders are common among school children and some of these disorders have showed predilection to one gender more than to the other with a statistically significant difference [P value was < 0.05] such as nail biting, habit tic deformity and onychomycosis were significantly more frequent in female children, whereas subungual haematoma was more frequent in males