Skills-based Health Education Research Articles

Quality of Health Education Teacher Preparation Program Curricula Throughout the United States.

Undergraduate majors in education, specifically in school health education (HE), have declined considerably in the United States. Reductions in state and federal funding for K-12 public education and increased demands on educators to prioritize standardized academic outcomes versus focusing on the whole child encompass many factors leading to fewer qualified teachers and reduced quality of HE delivery within schools. A content analysis of over 300 HE teacher preparation programs throughout the United States was conducted from 2019 to 2020 to assess available and required curriculum for pre-service HE teachers. Seven curriculum areas were reviewed: nutrition, physical activity (PA) and physical education (PE), HE, chronic disease management (CDM), social emotional learning and mental health (SEL/MH), drug abuse and tobacco prevention (DA/TP), and a methods course in teaching HE. Findings indicated program type influenced course offerings, with stand-alone HE and joint HE/PE programs providing the most comprehensive curriculum. Most programs required courses in general HE, PA and PE, and nutrition. Programs were deficient in offering courses in CDM, DA/TP, and SEL/MH. This article contains recommendations to improve the quality of HE delivery in public schools, for example by ensuring that school health educators are trained in providing skills-based HE to youth, which can assist in addressing child and youth health outcomes (eg, CDM, mental health) for the nation.

Skill-based Health Education for Adolescent Mental Health through the HOPE

Globally, it is estimated that 10-20% of adolescents experience mental health problems and remains underdiagnosed and untreated. Mental health activities have not been active in Sekaran Public Health Center. Community partnership provide mental health education, training to overcome and prevent mental health problems, and to be peer educators by HOPE (Health Educated, Organized, Practiced, and Empowered) method. Twelve adolescents were screened by Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). All youth cadres had normal difficulty scores, emotional symptoms, and hyperactivity. Two adolescents have threshold category in behavior problems, an adolescent has threshold category in peer problems, and an adolescent has abnormal category in proposocial behavior. There is a difference in mental health knowledge between before and after education is given (p=0,014). It is important for health facilities to regularly provide education and empowerment of adolescents in mental health. This HOPE method can be implemented for other health facilities.

Skills-Based Education for Promoting Healthy Diet Among Female Adolescents: A Randomized Controlled Trial Study

Poor dietary habits among adolescents could cause serious health conditions in adulthood. Skill-based health education seems to be more effective than structured educational methods in increasing knowledge, changing attitudes, and improving dietary behavior among adolescents. This study aimed to assess the effects of a skills-based healthy diet education program on female adolescents' dietary knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. This was a randomized trial study on 80 female students of two randomly selected public female high schools in Tehran, Iran. The participants were randomly assigned to an intervention and a control group. The intervention group underwent a skills-based educational program and the control group educated by a conventional lecture method. The demographic questionnaires were completed before the intervention and the Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) questionnaires were completed three times: before, immediately after, and two months following the interventions. Data was analyzed using SPSS 21 and Repeated Measure ANOVA (RMANOVA), t-test, Mann–Whitney, Fishers exact test, and Chi Square. The knowledge increased significantly in both groups after the educational programs (p < .001). The behaviors were significantly improved only in the skills-based-education group after the intervention (p < .001). In both follow-up phases, knowledge and behaviors were significantly higher in the intervention group comparing to the control group (p < .05). Skills-based health education is more effective than routine lecture method on dietary behaviors of female adolescent. Therefore, these methods are recommended for promoting of healthy dietary behaviors. Trial Registration IRCT201311278801N6, 2013, Iranian registry of Clinical Trial.

Participatory Video on Menstrual Hygiene: A Skills-Based Health Education Approach for Adolescents in Nepal.

School adolescents who are in the formative years of their lives are in stark need of appropriate and innovative skills-based health education and information. In this paper, we aim to explain how the participatory video (PV) approach was used in exploring the issues concerning adolescent reproductive health, particularly on menstrual hygiene among school adolescents in Chitwan district of Nepal. The students were engaged in the PV process for more than 6 months. They were given smart android phones with a 15-megapixel camera to shoot the video. The school adolescents regarded PV as an innovative and participatory medium for developing their critical thinking skills, collaborative skills, communication skills, and creative skills, which are required in the twenty-first century.

Managing Stress and Emotional Wellbeing Unit Overview

This article examines stress and emotional wellness and provides an example of a skills-based health education unit for National Health Education Standard 7 for 9th grade.

Efficacy of School-based SEL Programs: Aligning with Health and Physical Education Standards

The Competencies and sub-competencies of the Collaborative of Academic and Social Emotional Learning (CASEL) are very closely aligned to skills-based health education based on the National Health Education Standards and SHAPE America Grade Level Outcomes but miles apart when it comes to recognizability, perceived need, efficaciousness, and implementation. It is the intent of this article to demonstrate how current research, which indicates the benefits of teaching and learning SEL skills, is related to the skills taught in health and physical education.

Public–private comparative study of the quality of implementation of the school health programme in a metropolitan city in Nigeria

The Nigerian National School Health Policy (NSHPo) was adopted more than a decade ago, yet its quality of implementation (QoI) remains poor. Diverse variations exist between public and private schools yet most studies in Nigeria did not consider this in their evaluation. This study was conducted to assess the QoI of the School Health Programme (SHP) in public and private primary schools in Ibadan metropolis, using the NSHPo framework as a guide. The study utilized a comparative-descriptive cross-sectional design. A two-stage sampling technique was used to select one of five local government areas in a Metropolitan city and 68 primary schools. An observational checklist was used to assess the five domains of the SHP, namely: Healthful School Environment [HSE]; School Health Services [SHS]; Skills Based Health Education [SBHE]; School Feeding Services [SFS], and School, Home, and Community Relationship [SHCR]), as listed in the Nigerian SHPo framework. QoI was assessed by exploring availability, suitability, adequacy, and functionality of the domains measured. About half of the primary schools (38.5% public; 75.9% private) had first-aid boxes, but they were empty in 66.7% of public and 20.7% of private schools. A few (19.1%) had hand-washing facilities. Almost all the schools (97.1%) did not perform medical examination for school vendors. Only 35.3% of the schools had waste-disposal facilities, of which a significantly higher proportion were in private schools (72.4%) (P < 0.001). None of the schools had counselling schedule or record of counselling sessions. Overall, QoI of the SHP was significantly poor in 36.8% of the schools, with a higher proportion (46.2%) in public schools compared with private schools (24.1%) (p < 0.001). The School Health Programme in selected urban private and public primary schools had poor quality of implementation but private schools had a better quality of implementation.

Advancing Oral Health Equity Through School-Based Oral Health Programs: An Ecological Model and Review.

In the United States and elsewhere, children are more likely to have poor oral health if they are homeless, poor, and/or members of racial/ethnic minority and immigrant populations who have suboptimal access to oral health care. As a result, poor oral health serves as the primary marker of social inequality. Here, the authors posit that school-based oral health programs that aim to purposefully address determinants of health care access, health and well-being, and skills-based health education across multiple levels of influence (individual/population, interpersonal, community, and societal/policy) may be more effective in achieving oral health equity than programs that solely target a single outcome (screening, education) or operate only on the individual level. An ecological model is derived from previously published multilevel frameworks and the World Health Organization (WHO) concept of a health-promoting school. The extant literature is then examined for examples of evaluated school-based oral health programs, their locations and outcomes(s)/determinant(s) of interest, the levels of influence they target, and their effectiveness and equity attributes. The authors view school-based oral health programs as vehicles for advancing oral health equity, since vulnerable children often lack access to any preventive or treatment services absent on-site care provision at schools. At the same time, they are incapable of achieving sustainable results without attention to multiple levels of influence. Policy solutions that improve the nutritional quality of children's diets in schools and neighborhoods and engage alternative providers at all levels of influence may be both effective and equitable.

French validation of a measurement scale of life skills for children

Abstract Background According to WHO (2003), ‘Life skills’ are defined as psychosocial abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. They are loosely grouped into three broad categories: cognitive for analyzing and using information, personal for developing personal agency and managing oneself, and inter-personal skills for communicating and interacting effectively with others. Skills-based health education is an approach to creating or maintaining healthy lifestyles and conditions through the development of knowledge, attitudes, and especially skills, using a variety of learning experiences, with an emphasis on participatory methods. Our aim was to develop an integrated measure of the life skills grouped into three broad categories of skills for children who are at least 9 years old. The present communication is focused on the validation in a French validation of a tool measuring social competencies in children - Weiss et al. (2014) - which represents one of the three categories of psychosocial competencies (emotional and cognitive competencies). Methods Data were collected three times during year 2017-2018: 614 questionnaire (T1), 564 (T2), 331 (T3) - 311 children filled the questionnaire three times. Three types of analyses were conducted in order to assess the validity and reliability of social competence (SPSS version 23 et AMOS version 21): Validity of construct, concurrent validity and reliability. Results The results show a high reliability and a good validity of construct and concurrent, thus indicating satisfactory psychomotor qualities. Conclusions This compendium will also assess the validity and reliability of this scale with the data collected at the other two measurement times and study the predictive validity of the scale. The same process will be applied to the cognitive skills measurement scale for validation. Acknowledgment: CPS team and schools and pupils involved.

Consistency and Variance: A Balance in Health Education

Life is both routine and unpredictable. Effective teaching is the same. In this article, different parts of a typical skills-based health education unit are discussed, specifically examining the place of consistency and variance in each section.

Social-emotional Learning, Health Education Best Practices, and Skills-based Health

There are natural connections between a skills-based health education classroom, the SHAPE America appropriate practices for health education, and social-emotional learning (SEL) competencies. This article describes how health educators can incorporate SEL topics into their lessons.

Quality of implementation of the school health program in a rural district of Oyo State, Nigeria: a public-private comparison

There is abundant evidence that the first and only School Health Policy (SHPo) in Nigeria was adopted in 2006, but no study has since evaluated the quality of implementation (QoI) in government and privately funded schools. This study was conducted to evaluate the QoI of the School Health Program (SHP) in public and private primary schools of a rural Local Government Area in Oyo State using the SHPo framework as a guide. A comparative-descriptive cross-sectional design was chosen. A two-stage sampling technique was used to select 46 primary schools in a rural area: 30 public and 16 private. An observational checklist was used to assess the five domains of the SHP, namely: School Health Services (SHS), Skills Based Health Education (SBHE), School Feeding Services (SFS), Healthful School Environment (HSE) and School, Home and Community Relationship (SHCR), as listed in the Nigerian SHPo framework. QoI was assessed by exploring the availability, suitability and functionality of basic provisions for SHP implementation. The majority of schools (90% public; 87.5% private) had first-aid boxes, but they had no contents in 23.3% of public and 68.8% of private schools. In only one private school was evidence of periodic medical inspection. A school meal service was present in 93.3% of public and 18.8% of private schools. Only one private school practiced medical screening. Some had gender-sensitive toilets (81.3% private; 33.3% public). None of the schools had evidence of pre-employment medical and routine screening for non-communicable diseases for staff. Overall, around 50% of schools had poor QoI of the SHP (63.3% public; 25.0% private). QoI of the SHP in selected rural public and private primary schools was generally poor, but with better quality in private than public schools.

Horizontal schools-based health programme in rural Kenya

BackgroundPrimary school children in low-income countries are at risk of many diseases and poor health affects attendance, cognition and ability to learn. Developing school health and nutrition strategies has been...

Promotion of physical activity of adolescents by skill-based health education

PurposeInsufficient physical activity leads to an increase in chronic diseases. Skills-based health education methods are supposed to be more successful than traditional methods to promote healthy behaviors. Skills-based health education is an approach to create healthy lifestyles and skills using participatory methods. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of skill-based education method on physical activities of female adolescents.Design/methodology/approachThis was an experimental study on 80 female public high school students aged 12-14 years old in Tehran. The participants were randomly divided into two groups: experimental group of 40 girls who were educated using “Skills-based education method,” and control group of 40 girls who were educated by lecture as a routine educational method for health promotion. Data were collected using a valid and reliable questionnaire to assess physical activity-related knowledge, attitudes and behavior. Data were gathered three times; before, immediately after (Phase 1) and two months after educational intervention (Phase 2). Data analysis was performed using SPSS 20.FindingsIntra-group comparison demonstrated that both educational methods can increase knowledge, attitude and behavior of the students after intervention comparing to before intervention (RMANOVA; p<0.05). However, the comparison between groups demonstrated a significant higher increase of knowledge (t-test; p<0.01 and p<0.0; phase 1 and 2, respectively), and behavior (t-test; p<0.01 and p=0.002; phase 1 and 2, respectively) but not attitude (p=0.083 and p=0.125, phase 1 and 2, respectively) among the students participated in the experimental “skilled based health education” group rather than the control “lecture” group.Originality/valueSkill-based health education comparing to routine lecture-based education creates deep and long lasting knowledge and behavior and is highly recommended for promoting physical activity and other health-related knowledge and among adolescents.

Retooling Assessment Procedures for Skill-based Health Education for Young People in Nigeria: Implications for 21st Century Educational Assessment

Skill-based Health Education is an approach to Health Education that is effective, interactive, engaging and meaningful. It focuses on skills and functional knowledge of health issues within a society. The importance of Health Education cannot be overemphasized as it plays significant role in preventing disease, prolonging life and protecting health. The extent to which the objectives of school Health Education can be realized is closely tied to assessment procedures that will be effective in assessing the skills taught. This is because a critical role assessment plays is to serve as a tool to support instructional processes. In a century characterized by explosion of knowledge as well as emerging challenges, skill-based Health Education has evolved as a responsive tool to surmounting the myriads of health challenges in this century. There is therefore an overwhelming need for a paradigm shift in the assessment procedures of school Health Education to critically evaluate the ability of learners to apply the skills in addressing contemporary societal health challenges. This paper attempts to propose appropriate assessment procedures for skill-based Health Education in Nigerian schools.

A study on the effect of skill-based health education on management of acute diarrheal diseases

Background: Each year diarrheal disease, which is highly preventable, causes an estimated 1.5 million deaths worldwide in children under 5 years of age. Oral rehydration therapy is the cornerstone of global efforts to reduce mortality from acute diarrhea. Objectives: A quasi-experimental study was planned with the objectives of (a) assessing baseline knowledge and skill regarding management of acute diarrheal diseases (ADDs) among mothers of children 10th standard. Only one woman had completed graduation. The majority (85.7%) were housewives. There was significant improvement in mothers’ overall knowledge (mean score pre-intervention = 32.9%; post-intervention = 80.9%; Z = 8.4; p < 0.01). Improvement was also observed in knowledge related to when to start ORS (Z =5.54; p < 0.01) and when to consult a doctor (Z = 5.89; p < 0.01) after education, and also in demonstration of how to prepare alternatives of ORS (X2 =34.35; p < 0.0001). Marked improvement in skill of making ORS was observed among mothers after giving skill-based education (X2 = 25.87; p < 0.0001). Conclusion: Repeated skill-based health education to mothers and mass educational programs are beneficial. Health-care providers should demonstrate preparation of ORS to mothers.

청소년들의 우울 및 자살관련 행태와 스마트폰 사용과의 관련성

Objectives: This study aims to examine the association of depression, suicidal behaviors with smartphone use behaviors among Korean adolescents. Methods: We analyzed data from 'Youth Health and Life Skills Survey' in 2013. The survey was based on self-reported questionnaires distributed to 915 grade 7th and 8th students at four middle schools in Gangdong-gu, Seoul, Korea in 2013 to evaluate the effects of 'Youth Health and Life Skills' program. Depression and suicidal behaviors were measured in terms of the experience rate, and smartphone use behaviors were measured with average hours of smartphone use a day and overindulged behaviors in smartphone use by using 5-point Likert scales. We examined the association of depression and suicidal behaviors with smartphone use behaviors by using t-test and regression analyses. Results: 21.5% of respondents have ever felt depressed or hopeless to lose interest in school life almost everyday for 2 weeks or longer in the past year. The experience rate of suicidal ideation, suicide plan, and suicidal attempt were 21.1%, 6.1%, and 5.7%, respectively. The mean of average hours of smartphone use a day was 3.9 hours, and the mean score of overindulged behaviors in smartphone use was 2.99. The students who have experienced depression and suicidal behaviors were more likely to have more smartphone using time and higher scores of overindulged behaviors in smartphne use than those who have not. Conclusion: We concluded that for preventing addictive or problematic smartphone use behaviors among adolescents we should consider and develop more positive strategies for the moderate use of smartphone than regulatory measures, which include the implementation of skill-based health education program including life skills at schools and the development of smartphone applications useful for resolving mental stress and promoting mental health.

Water quality awareness and barriers to safe water provisioning in informal communities: A case study from Ndola, Zambia

Abstract Local water providers in developing nations typically view shallow hand-dug wells as traditional and backward sources of water supply. It has long been assumed that the urban poor do not have the ability to develop these in a way that allows them to be classified as ‘improved’ in terms of the Millennium Development Goal for water, believing that users do not understand the factors that constitute safe water and the threats to these sources. Our assessment of the level of environmental knowledge held by local water-users in Ndola in Zambia demonstrates a coherent understanding of the safety of their water sources, the quality of these, the threats to them, and the fundamentals of how their local hydrology works, all of which is contrary to the perspective of key informants who are involved in water supply. Despite their environmental awareness, the majority of users did not generally protect their wells from contamination nor treat their water. The apparent paradox between awareness of risks to water and implementing protection of that water source is a function of the complex suite of socially manifested attitudes, habits and behaviours when it comes to water protection and treatment, which is exacerbated by vulnerable community and family structures and entrenched poverty. For meaningful outcomes in improved access to safe water to be realised providers need to increase their engagement with the informal communities, moving deeper into community-based participatory planning and recognise the societal and cultural factors that are entrained into these communities water supply practices. A key part of this involves the need for providers to move away from simple knowledge-based education to the more holistic form of skill-based health education.

Quest for Skill-Based Health Education: The Historical Route

The paper traced the historical route of the quest for skill-based health education from the Hippocratic era to the contemporary society. At the root of every era in the development of health education is the means of conveying health practice. The route commenced with the Hippocratic era of presenting health knowledge as prescriptive to the era of Hygeia to the Renaissance period and the consequent invention of the printing machine that disseminated health knowledge with oral intercourse coupled with Cultural Revolution by visual artists. Hygiene eventually became a school subject because of its emphasis on preventive measures to avoid health problems. Health education was born because of the irrelevance of hygiene in changing health behaviour and practice. Various methods of teaching health education came to be but it was found that teaching health knowledge and attitude was not enough until individuals acquire and develop health skill as a way of life hence the introduction of skill-based health education. With the development of the 21st century skills in many disciplines, health education has a task of delineating its skills in order to have a mapping of its conceptual framework. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n26p168

The Impact of a Health Methods Class on Pre-service Teachers' Self-Efficacy and Intent to Teach Health

Background Elementary schoolteachers are an important vehicle for teaching students health skills that will carry them through life and reduce their future risk of disease linked to health behaviors. Purpose To determine whether university classroom instruction resulted in increased self-efficacy and intent to teach a skill-based health curriculum for elementary pre-service teachers seeking certification. Methods A quasi-experimental design examined pre-service teachers' self-efficacy, outcome expectations, outcome value, and intent to teach health skills and content in pre-service teachers seeking certification who participated in a teaching methods class compared to controls who did not. Results A significant interaction between groups over time was found for self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and intent to teach. Furthermore, pre-service teachers exposed to the course were more likely to express an intent to teach skill-based health education and outcome values were higher postintervention. Discussion A skill-based health methods class increases pre-service teachers' self-efficacy and desire to teach skill-based health education. Translation to Health Education Practice The importance of health issues in the elementary school, coupled with the fact that most elementary health education is taught by classroom teachers and that self-efficacy is linked to teacher effectiveness, implies that well-designed curricula are imperative for future elementary schoolteachers.