The Gaza Child Health Survey (GCHS) was conducted as a school-based, randomized, point prevalence survey of Palestinian children aged 6 and up. The main aim of the survey was to determine the prevalence rates of emotional and behavioral health and physical health of 669 children and their families living in Gaza Strip. Also, an attempt was made to understand the relationship between environment factors (e.g. trauma exposure, maternal depression etc.) and mental and physical health outcomes. The main emotional and behavioral outcomes assessed included: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), conduct disorder (CD), emotional disorder (ED) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The GCHS was one of the three health surveys conducted by Health Reach (now the War and Health Programme), McMaster University in the Former Yugoslavia, Sir Lanka and Gaza. The survey design stage of the Gaza survey began in 1994 and data collection occurred between January to May of 1996.

The GCHS was conducted by an international team of researchers in psychiatry, pediatric, family medicine, psychology, anthropology, and statistics. A two-stage sampling method was used where stage one involved randomly selecting school from a list of all the public, private and UNRWA schools in Gaza. Stage two involved randomly selecting students from each school. Interviews of main care givers and youth were conducted at home; teacher interviews and physical health assessments were conducted in the schools.