Lessons learned from health education in Japanese schools

Abstract

Introduction A qualitative improvement in school health education is required to improve health for school‐aged children in developing countries. This study aimed to clarify the factors that enable the provision of comprehensive and consistent health education in Japan. Methods We reviewed health education in Japanese schools and the feature of curriculum revision, and clarified the factors that enable the provision of comprehensive and consistent health education. Results We identified nine points as enabling factors: (i) clear description of the purpose of health education; (ii) clear provision of teaching content and adequate time allocation; (iii) comprehensive school health framework and clarification of the position of the health education; (iv) systems for surveying and screening children’s health problems; (v) regular revising of the Courses of Study; (vi) well trained teachers responsible for health education; (vii) health education specialists in higher education facilities; (viii) various materials related to health education; and (ix) collaboration with related health workers. Conclusions We proposed measures to enhance health education in developing countries: (i) clarifying the role of health education toward achieving goals set out in laws and policies related to education; (ii) providing appropriate learning content and time allocation; (iii) establishing a comprehensive school health framework; (iv) establishing a system that continuously monitors children’s health issues; (v) identifying the person responsible for health education in a school and establishing a training system; (vi) providing a teacher’s guide and teaching materials to facilitate child participatory learning, and (vii) collaborating with guardians, community members, and local health workers.

Implementation and Evaluation of Life-planning Lecture to Enhance Perspective-Taking among High School Students: A School-based Nonrandomized Waitlist Intervention Study in Japan

“…For further research, efforts are needed to increase the number of high schools in diverse locations with a better sex balance. We further plan to attempt to expand the project at the community level in collaboration with a local government and a board of education (30) . In addition, which component of the lecture worked to increase the empathy of students could not be specifically evaluated.…”

Promoting health education through mobile apps

“…Collaborating with different stakeholders and experts in several professional fields is essential to help health organizations satisfy their patients' needs in terms of information (Team et al, 2020). When health organizations focus on these needs rather than on technical aspects, they contribute to reinforce patients' empowerment (Tomokawa et al, 2021). On the other hand, these needs do not only refer to medical information, but also to emotional aspects: providing patients with emotional and social support is vital to improve their global wellbeing (Doffoel et al, 2022).…”

Promoting Health Education through Mobile Apps: A Quantitative Analysis of American Hospitals

“…Schools resort to creative initiatives (online training for professors, social-media-based learning initiatives for students, etc.) to promote health education among their internal and external stakeholders [ 6 ]. Higher education institutions , especially schools of medicine and nursing, implement health education initiatives to reinforce their students’ skills in prevention and scientific dissemination [ 7 ].…”

“…Health organizations must view ethics through the prism of care, but also through that of education, as patients are becoming more and more demanding concerning their self-determination and their capacity to take care of themselves [ 11 ]. Thanks to ethics, hospitals can implement a multidisciplinary approach that makes their health education initiatives more interesting for all stakeholders, especially for patients [ 6 ]. On the other hand, promoting a multidisciplinary approach in health education involves using different formats and tools.…”