Internet review

Citation

(2012), "Internet review", Health Education, Vol. 112 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/he.2012.142112baa.001

Internet review

Article Type: Internet review From: Health Education, Volume 112, Issue 2

Health education and promotion in schools

To what extent should health education, as opposed to health promotion, be a feature of the curriculum in schools? The concept of health literacy is interesting in that it binds together these two concepts suggesting that schools need to develop health literacy in the same way they might develop IT literacy. A recent survey of the health literacy in the general population of the UK found that 46 per cent of respondents scored at “a level below that required to fulfil their full potential.” Further, 3 per cent of respondents, i.e. the equivalent of over 1 million people, were found to be functionally illiterate as far as health is concerned.

In the US it has been shown that people with low health literacy, not surprisingly, have less understanding about their health, poorer health, and higher mortality than people with “adequate” levels of health literacy. Health illiteracy is a killer.

The Department of Health now recognises the importance of health literacy in promoting health and it now forms a key part of the new health inequalities strategy. In this review, rather than looking at health schools websites themselves, which we have done in the past, here we examine the online resources that are available to help schools who want to work improve health literacy and move towards achieving healthy schools status.

Department for Education: Healthy Schools: www.education.gov.uk/schools/pupilsupport/pastoralcare/a0075278/healthy-schools

Government websites in the UK can often be rather dull populated as they are with numerous policy documents and very little of any practical worth. It was therefore quite a pleasant surprise to find this website and its abundance of resources to help parents and schools understand what the Health Schools initiative is all about, but further to help them with the practicalities of developing a healthy schools ethos.

The main resource that is available for download is a toolkit that contains an overview of the healthy schools initiative, examples of schools that have adopted this philosophy, and last but not least, a planning template that can be adapted to meet the needs of individual schools. This brief summary of the toolkit probably does not do it justice in that there are more than a dozen documents or links within the toolkit all of which will prove invaluable for schools that are just starting to work towards healthy schools status.

While not the most attractive of websites, no images are used at all, the content more than makes up for this. Users will not spend much time on this site, once they have downloaded the toolkit and associated resources, they will be off, hopefully to set up their own healthy schools project.

Alliance for a Healthier Generation: www.healthiergeneration.org/schools.aspx

This is a North American website that has as its main goal the reduction of childhood obesity by 2015. Although not strictly a Healthy Schools website, it has as one of its initiatives a Healthy Schools Programme so it is worth some consideration. The Healthy Schools Programme includes an emphasis on healthy snacks and school meals as well as physical activity and health education. What perhaps makes it unusual compared to the UK based Health Schools initiatives is that it also includes a section on employee wellness for school staff.

As you might expect, the section on healthy eating includes some recipe ideas, but the main function of this section is to help schools source healthier foods for their children and to save money by developing a Group Purchasing Scheme with other schools.

The section dealing with physical activity provides users with a series of interesting case studies describing how schools have increased the physical activity of their pupils. The more obvious include after school games, but there are also some innovative approaches, for example using dance to increase attendance and a bicycle club that not only takes children on bike rides, but also teaches them how to maintain and repair their own bicycles.

Users should not let the fact that this website is aimed mainly at a North American audience put them off. The ideas that are communicated by this website easily translate into a Eurocentric school system.

Hampshire Healthy Schools: www3.hants.gov.uk/healthyschools

Since the election of the coalition government at the last general election there has been a move to make the Healthy Schools initiative in the UK less bureaucratic and more schools focused. The emphasis now is on the process being schools-led with local authorities only having a quality assurance and recognition role.

Recognising this new approach local authorities have developed websites that still promote the concept of healthy schools, but do so from a distance and this Hampshire site is a good example of this. Users of this website, which is aimed primarily at teachers and school governors, can find a number of useful resources to help them develop their own healthy school policy. Background information on the Healthy Schools Programme is available, as is the toolkit provided by the Department for Education and that was described above. There are links to the four core themes of the Healthy Schools Programme, i.e. personal, social and health education; healthy eating; physical activity; and emotional health and wellbeing. However, users looking for ideas on how these themes might be implemented are going to be disappointed. What the links do provide is the documentation and the local and national policy guidelines required of a healthy school. These are important but most users will be expecting a little more. A few case studies similar to those provided by the Alliance web site above, illustrating different ways in which schools have approached these four themes, would improve this website considerably.

www.healthliteracy.org.uk

Although not focusing on healthy schools as such, this Health Literacy website is obviously relevant to the health schools initiative. This website has been set up by a special interest group of the Society for Academic Primary Care and is funded by the Department of Health, amongst others. Membership of this group is free and is open to anyone including patients, patient groups, medical practitioners, and teachers. So the website appears to have sound credentials, but what about the content?

Health literacy is aimed at the whole population rather than just school children and as it is a relatively new concept the website still has some way to go in terms of what is provided.

The basic concept of health literacy is defined and although the section is small it is well written with a range of good references. Unfortunately the section on government policy is limited to a single link to a Department of Health website dealing with health inequalities, so further work is needed here.

There are sections dealing with completed and ongoing projects although at the time of this review there was nothing available. The publications list while not extensive will be of interest though it should be noted that only titles and authors are provided, it is not possible to download the actual papers.

The Links section has a random selection of links to web sites beyond this one and includes Department of Health, Literacies and Health and for some unexplained reason London South Bank University.

Health literacy as a concept is to be welcomed and logically may one day supercede initiatives like the Healthy Schools Programme. This website may well be at the forefront of this but in terms of what is presented here, there is still a long way to go.

Healthier US School Challenge: www.fns.usda.gov/tn/healthierus/index.html

This programme has been developed for North American children by the United States Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition service, so not surprisingly the focus is on diet although exercise is dealt with as well.

One of the first features to notice about this website is that it is possible to “Browse by Audience”, i.e. different information is provided depending on whether the user is a parent, and educator or someone involved in the food service industry. An interesting innovation that other websites would do well to follow.

The website provides lots of promotional materials that can be freely downloaded though it must be recognised that these are for a North American audience.

The website also lists schools across the US that have won awards for their efforts in this context, though the schools listed do not provide actual websites. What the individual schools do provide are tips from award winners and here users can find practical information on getting started with this type of schools programme, for example how to create healthier menus, energizing pupils and even how to fund these activities. The information provided is rather anecdotal but useful nevertheless.

Overall the website is well designed and attractive to look at. Some of the features, for example the Competitive Foods Calculator could do with a little more explanation, but apart from that the website works well and is worth a look at even if you are not based in North America.