The Importance of Health Education in Formal Education Program: A Research Based on Content Analysis

Abstract

With effective health education, it is expected that risky behaviors will diminish and positive behaviors towards health promotion and protection will improve. Reaching a wide audience by providing education in the school environment at an early stage is of critical importance in terms of affecting the future of the individual. When the causes of death engendered by risky behavioral factors underlying are examined, it is seen that the use of tobacco products, nutritional problems, physical inactivity, alcohol consumption, infections and motor vehicle accidents take place near the top. In the compulsory basic education program in Türkiye, the aim is to develop students' health-related knowledge levels and health behaviors with different courses and special activities. In this study, it was aimed to determine the health-related outcomes in 51 courses in the formal education program (pre-school and the first 9 years), to classify the outcomes according to themes and to compare them with the framework obtained from the literature. In the study, the information about the courses and outcomes were taken from the website of the Ministry of National Education and examined by content analysis method. As a result of the study, it was determined that there were 129 different health-related outcomes in eight different courses. These outcomes were gathered under the themes of nutrition, combatting against addiction, environmental health, physical activity, knowledge of diseases, personal care, mental health, health services, basic first aid, technology, health of body organs, safety and adolescent health. It was determined that the themes and sub-themes determined in the study were mainly compatible with the health education program recommendations in the literature. The topics that are included in the program proposals and also in the literature but which are not encountered in Türkiye can be summarized as global health, sexual health, disability life and consumer health.