The health promoting school: progress and future challenges in Welsh secondary schools

Data were obtained from a random sample of 87 secondary schoolsin Wales (UK) about the organization and provision of healtheducation teaching, the implementation of health related policies,and the involvement of outside agencies and professionals inthe planning and delivery of health education programmes. Theresults suggest that schools have made progress in curriculumdevelopment. However, if the concept of the health promotingschool is to be translated into practice, greater attentionwill need to be given us the development of broadly based policiesfor health covering both pupils and staff and the better integrationof school programmes with community resources. Greater understandingof the health promoting school concept by teaching staff andthe development of examples of good practice in embedding healtheducation into national curriculum subjects, are also advocated.     

System-wide adoption of health promotion practices by schools: evaluation of a telephone and mail-based dissemination strategy in Australia

Schools can potentially benefit from system-wide approaches to the dissemination of health promotion practices. This intervention study undertaken in the Hunter Region of NSW, Australia, used a pre-post design to assess whether a phone and mail intervention dissemination strategy was associated with an increase in the proportion of 218 primary schools undertaking eight health promotion practices. Health promotion practices addressed the prevention of harm associated with five agreed health issues-smoking, nutrition, playground safety, asthma and infectious diseases. The study also assessed acceptability of the dissemination strategy to schools, cost and whether intervention schools' characteristics were associated with uptake of health promotion practices. Compared to baseline a significant improvement in prevalence was observed at both 1 and 2 year follow-up for seven of the eight health promotion practices addressed. The greatest improvement occurred in the first year of the project. There was a greater uptake of the practice of providing information regarding passive smoking in urban schools. The dissemination strategy was found to have a cost per adopted practice of 121 Australian dollars and to be acceptable to the large majority (>90%) of schools. The results suggest that the dissemination strategy may represent a relatively low cost method of enhancing health promotion practices in schools and of monitoring such practices. Further research addressing the methodological issues of this study is needed to confirm these findings.     

Nutrition policies for schools

In Britain, Canada and the United States, the impetus for initiating school nutrition policies has come primarily from health, not education, agencies. These agencies define the nutrition problems of school students as both under‐ and over‐nutrition, and, to solve them, advocate the development and implementation of policies to combat health and learning problems associated with poor nutrition. Health, rather than educational, agencies are also more likely to formulate school nutrition policies; such policies commonly address the dietary principles of access, adequacy, and moderation. Within countries, the adoption of school nutrition policies varies considerably. Moreover, the degree to which such policies have been implemented is unclear, because of a lack of research to evaluate their process and impact. To enhance the successful development and implementation of school nutrition policies, greater partnership between health and education agencies is recommended throughout the policy process.     

Educating for a healthy, sustainable world: an argument for integrating health promoting schools and sustainable schools

Al Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth and the British government's Stern Review of the economics of climate change have provided heightened awareness of how humans are over-stretching the Earth's life support systems. The health of human populations and the health of global ecosystems are inextricably linked and the need for fundamental changes in how we live is becoming impossible to ignore. While not the complete answer, education must be a part of imagining and transforming our patterns of living. Learning embedded in educational systems derived from worldviews that replicate unhealthy and unsustainable lifestyles and environments is not a part of the solution but a significant part of the problem. In Australia, two internationally implemented whole-school reform movements, health promoting schools (HPS) and sustainable schools (SS)--seek to provide ways of operationalizing transformative educational processes. Both movements aim to build resilience and optimism, use action-oriented teaching and learning approaches, and have a focus on the future. While these two approaches to educational and social change have much in common, currently there is virtually no conversation between their proponents and advocates. This paper makes a case for HPS and SS to work together--both theoretically and practically--with the ultimate goal being the emergence of schools that are both green and healthy. Such integration would make an important educational contribution to the creation of a healthy, sustainable world.     

Gender-specific health behaviors of German university students predict the interest in campus health promotion

This cross-sectional study aimed to provide an assessment of the needs for health promotion in university freshmen, based on lifestyle variables and the interest in health-promoting activities. A questionnaire survey was performed using a sample of 288 male and 362 female university freshmen from 19 to 33 years of age. Male students were significantly more likely to engage in drug-taking behaviors, referring to alcohol and cannabis use, and had a higher body mass index. No gender difference was noted in the numbers of regular smokers. Preventive behaviors with respect to healthy nutrition and dental hygiene were reported more often in females, whereas the duration of physical activity per week and the use of condoms with a new sexual partner showed no gender difference. There was a strong demand for group health-oriented programs (79.5% of respondents). Substantial proportions of students had a high interest in individual counseling aiming at stress management (24.5%), healthy nutrition (19.3%) and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases (18.2%). Women expressed a greater interest in most programs than men. Multivariate regression analyses showed that a disposition for alcohol abuse was the strongest predictor of interest in health counseling in male students (p < 0.001), while psychosocial stress was the most important predictor in female students (p < 0.001). From the prevalence of health risks and the students' interest in health promotion programs it was concluded that there is a strong need for health promotion in the university setting in Germany. Results suggested that individuals at risk would probably benefit most from an individual counseling program.     

The role of the schools of public health in the development of primary health care

Starting with the assumption that the schools of public health can and should be major promoters of primary health care but that they have not fully utilized their potential, the paper reviews the different interpretations of primary health care and their implications for the recruitment policies, educational objectives, teaching methods and research orientation of the schools. Four interpretations (primary health care as a set of activities; as a level of care; as a strategy of organizing health services; and as a philosophy permeating the entire health care system) are identified. It is suggested that most industrialized countries already have a primary medical care system which has to be transformed into primary health care. A blueprint for this transformation is outlined. Many of the changes included in the blueprint are related to the concept of primary health care as a strategy. Schools of public health can play a major role in implementing the necessary strategic changes and in training their implementers. The training of actual primary care providers for leadership; increased emphasis on management in the curricula; and reorientation of research towards primary health care are underlined as particularly important elements in the new role of the schools of public health.     

Promoting and protecting the health of children and young people

BACKGROUND: The health-related behaviours adopted by children and young people can have both immediate and long-term health effects. Health promotion interventions that target children and young people can lay the foundations of a healthy lifestyle that may be sustained into adulthood. This paper is based on a selective review of evidence relating to health promotion in childhood, carried out to support the external working group on the 'Healthy Child' module of the Children's National Service Framework. METHODS: This is a selective review of mainly secondary research. It focuses on injury prevention, support for parenting and the promotion of good mental health, and promoting a healthy diet and physical activity amongst children and young people. FINDINGS: In many areas, the quality of primary research into health promotion interventions aimed at children and young people is poor. Interventions are heterogeneous and not described in sufficient detail. Sample sizes tend to be small, and there are commonly problems of bias. Despite these difficulties, there is good evidence for a range of interventions, including (1) area road safety schemes; (2) combining a variety of approaches to the promotion of the use of safety equipment, including legislation and enforcement, loan/assisted purchase/giveaway schemes, education, fitting and maintenance of safety equipment; (3) school-based mental health promotion; (4) parenting support; (5) interventions that promote and facilitate 'lifestyle' activity for children, such as walking and cycling to school, and those that aim to reduce sedentary behaviours such as parent education to reduce the time children spend watching TV and using computers; and (6) controlling advertising of unhealthy food that is aimed at children. CONCLUSIONS: There are effective interventions to promote and protect the health of children and young people that require action across the five areas described in the Ottawa Charter. Health, social care and education services have a direct role in the delivery of many of these interventions and, in other areas, a role in collaborative work with other agencies, in lobbying for policy change and in raising the profile of child health promotion. Further research is needed using larger study populations, and closely defined interventions, both targeted and universal, in order to fill some of the current gaps in the evidence base for health promotion in children and young people.     

Effective community health participation strategies: a Cuban example

Since the decade of the 1970s health promotion has been an integral part of most primary health care strategies. This article examines some community participation strategies adopted in the health promotion in Cuba and the policies which enable such strategies. This is done in the context of health promotion theory and also examines the concept of direct involvement by the political directorate in health promotion. The article is written from a reflexive perspective following the author's visit to Cuba as member of a health study tour in March 2002.     

苏州市中小学校校医及卫生室配置情况调查

目的 了解苏州市中小学校校医/保健教师和卫生设施基本情况,为改进当前学校卫生工作提供参考。方法 2017年采用问卷调查的方法,对苏州市10个区县及市直属辖区内中小学校共626所,校医及保健教师743名进行调查及数据分析。结果 苏州市中小学生与校医/保健教师人数配备比例是1171:1,配备比例达标(600:1)的学校占比为13.7%。校医/保健教师以女性为主(84.1%),年龄多在 30~50 岁之间(67.2%),其专业为医学类的占比为63.5%;医学专业职称,初级(40.3%)和中级(35.2%)占多数。98.6%的学校均配备有独立的卫生室或保健室,开展学生营养指导与干预(68.9%),心理咨询(34.0%)的相对较少。结论 苏州市中小学校校医/保健教师配置不足,职称结构不合理,应加强对校医队伍的建设和管理。     

Developing the ‘health-promoting school’—a national survey of healthy schools awards

The concept of the ‘Health Promoting School’ has been widely advocated as an approach to enhancing public health through school based health promotion. In many areas ‘Healthy Schools Award’ schemes have been set up to support the development of this concept, but there is no information on how widespread this practice is in the UK, how standards are evaluated, and what effect Healthy Schools Awards may have on young peoples' health. This UK national survey aimed to determine the extent and nature of existing award schemes and how they were being evaluated. A postal questionnaire was sent to all 200 health promotion units in the UK; the response rate corrected for mergers of units was 78.5%. Sixty-eight respondents (51%) were involved with an award scheme and 28 (21%) were planning them. Current award schemes were mostly jointly run by the health and education sectors, encompassing 845 participating schools of which two-thirds were primary schools. The most common issues addressed were; standard chronic disease risk behaviour, the environment and health education in the national curriculum; less frequently addressed were mental health, accident prevention, staff health and developing links with the wider community. Evaluation was usually by target setting and assessment of progress over a two year period. However, evaluation was rarely external or independent, raising doubts about the standards obtained and validity of the approaches. This survey highlights the rapid growth of healthy schools award schemes and the need for wider exchange of information on good practice. In particular there is a need for more explicit and measurable standards of achievement to ensure the quality of award schemes, and further research into their effectiveness.     

Promoting the health of people with physical disabilities: a discussion of the financing and organization of public health services in Australia

People with physical disabilities have a high probability ofsuffering secondary disabilities and disability-related acutehealth problems. Critically, they experience difficulties inaccess to health-promoting services. Of importance in reducingbarriers to such services is the role of funding systems. Therehas been little research or comment in the area of funding,and this paper attempts to redress this imbalance by providingan overview of two specific systemic barriers in the fundingof health promotion for those with disabilities in Australia:the method of service reimbursement and the disparate natureof funding sources. It is clear that there needs to be a revisionof health care funding systems to enable an increase in thepromotion of health amongst people with physical disabilities.Two possible solutions are considered: case-management and theincreased involvement of private industry. The potential benefitsof this are illustrated by reference to reducing unnecessaryrehospitalization. With changes occurring in the Australianhealth care system, e.g. the move to case-mix funding and case-management,there is the potential for people with disabilities to eitherlose their access to health promotion further or to capitalizeon these changes to ensure improvements. Either way it is clearthat those involved with health promotion need to urgently addressthe issues raised in this paper in a timely fashion, to ensurethat beneficial changes are capitalized upon and the potentialfor negative impacts is minimized.     

中小学心理健康教育存在的问题及其对策

我国中小学心理健康教育起步较晚,发展较慢,存在着区域发展不平衡,活动开展欠科学、社会家庭不重视等问题,而加强心理学学科及师资队伍建设,加强心理健康教育活动以及营造良好的家庭和社会环境等是解决问题基本路径和策略。     

缙云县农村学校健康教育与健康促进活动效果评估

目的：了解缙云县农村学校开展健康教育和健康促进活动的效果,为更好地开展农村学校健康教育和健康促进活动提供科学的依据。方法：按照整群随机抽样的方法,分别抽取大源镇中学初中生6个班256名学生,大源镇小学12个班482名学生作为调查对象,采用自行设计的问卷在干预前后进行调查。结果：中学生干预前为45.8%,干预后为71.4%,干预前后差别有统计学意义;小学生干预前为41.8%,干预后为65.7%;干预前后差别有统计学意义;不同年级学生干预前后差别有统计学意义。结论：学校健康教育和健康促进活动成效显著,高年级学生效果更显著,但健康相关知识知晓率总体偏低,今后必须要加强偏远山区学校的健康教育工作。     

Teachers' perceptions of health education practice in Northern Ireland: reported differences between policy and non-policy holding schools

It is generally accepted that schools should devote resources to developing and disseminating a health education policy, yet there is little empirical evidence to establish the value of policy in this context. This study examined teachers' perceptions of health education practice in policy and non-policy holding schools. A questionnaire measuring aspects of health education practice was issued to a random sample of schools. This consisted of 276 primary and 119 post-primary schools. In this cross-sectional study, significant differences in teachers' evaluations were found between policy and non-policy holding schools. It was evident that the presence of a health education policy was associated with higher ratings of health education practice. This evidence suggests that policy has intrinsic value in terms of health education practice. The development and dissemination of policy documents were also examined to assess the workload involved.     

Project Megapoles: Promoting better health for socially disadvantaged groups across Europe

A new public health network is looking at ways of achievingbetter health and reducing differences in health between Europe'scapital cities. A report from the Socially Disadvantaged Groupssub-network of Megapoles.