Medicine education as a part of health education: the implementation in Finnish comprehensive schools

Abstract

Medicine education, meaning teaching about rational use of medicines, is one way to promote health literacy of children. This paper describes the implementation of medicine education as a part of health education in Finland. Data were collected using a nationwide postal survey from a representative sample (n = 1700) of Finnish primary and lower secondary school teachers in spring 2010. A response rate of 56% (n = 928) was achieved. The final study population was formed of 667 teachers who had taught health-related topics. χ2- and non-parametric Mann–Whitney U- and Kruskal–Wallis tests were used to statistically compare the data. Seventy-six percent of primary and 89% of lower secondary teachers had taught or were willing to teach medicine education. The actual implementation rate of medicine education was low because only a minority of teachers had taught specific topics related to medicines, i.e. what medicines are and the prerequisites for proper use of medicines (21% and 11% of primary, and 48% and 35% of lower secondary school teachers, respectively). In primary schools, these topics were taught most by teachers with experience of medicating own child's long-term illness (P < 0.05 and P < 0.001, respectively). In lower secondary school, these topics were taught most by teachers trained in health education (P < 0.0001 and P < 0.0001, respectively). These findings highlight the need of adequate teacher education as well as continuing education in medicine education.