Call for Health Education Reform

Megan Stanfield

November 26, 2011

RHE 309

Final Essay Draft 1: Evaluation of Health Education

I remember as a high school student I was required to take three full years of Spanish in order to graduate. However the same education system only required one semester of health in order to deem me ready to go out in the world. The education system puts more importance on learning a second language than learning what organs allow you to speak another language. We live in a world where the incidences of childhood obesity and diabetes grow in exponential numbers. If you are like most Americans, this is not new information. There are currently many platforms that are supposed to target and improve this continuously growing epidemic. The purpose of this paper is not to talk about ways that we can fight the already existing relative risks; the purpose of this paper is to explain why increased requirements for health education in public schools is the best intervention to cease and assist this exponentially growing disease of childhood obesity.

The controversy of ‘how to battle the growing numbers of childhood obesity’ is constantly debated. “Dual trends of rising youth overweight and declining PE time” has lead to one initiative that encourages increased physical education time from various organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Secretaries of Education and Health and Human Services (Cawley, Meyerhoefer, Newhouse 2005). This idea may represent a correlated topic of exercise, but it is only a piece of the puzzle. I believe that it is our duty to educate students on health in greater depth than what is currently required. When students graduate from high school, they often have a better understanding of the anatomy of a frog than that of a human. I urge the audience to ask: why is it that people are not taught about the machinery that they operate every day; this machine is the human body.

Before examining the courses of action at hand, we must understand what health is and what is required of a successful health behavior change intervention. In the past health was defined as the presence of disease or not. Now one’s wellness in physical, social, psychological, and spiritual domains define health (Cottrell, Girvan, McKenzie 2009). When discussing what the best intervention is for childhood obesity we must remember that health is multidimensional, multilevel, always changing, and is largely culturally defined. For an intervention in behavior change to be successful as a health agent we must understand: that nothing we do as individuals is in isolation, there is always something happening around us; the intervention must be justified; must be culturally aware and sensitive; the change in beliefs and attitudes of the targeted audience must be supported by acquired knowledge and skills (health (Cottrell, Girvan, McKenzie 2009). When dealing with a societal level intervention we must also acknowledge the social norms, current policies in place, socioeconomic structure, and the access/availability or required resources.

The American Academy of Pediatrics published a journal article titled Physical Fitness and Activity in Schools. This publication supports “the efforts of schools to include increased physical activity in the curriculum, suggests ways in which schools can meet their goals in physical fitness, and encourages pediatricians to offer their assistance” (AAP). The evidence that the AAP uses to support their engagement is true, however not fully supported scientifically. It is true that living a sedentary lifestyle, as mentioned in the article, can lead to injury and chronic diseases. However there is no evidence that patients with chronic heart disease acquired this disease because they did not participate in physical education as a child. Rather it is more likely that the patient acquired chronic heart disease because of the of lack of knowledge and skills to lead a healthy lifestyle. While there is a correlation between physical education and youth obesity, there is not evidence that it is the cause of increased childhood obesity.

Although physical education and obesity is a correlation and not a causation, this evidence is still usable to support policy change for incorporating more health education. “The percentage of high school students enrolled in daily PE classes declined from 41.6 percent in 1991 to 28.4 percent in 2003 “(Grunbaum et al., 2004). However, there is no guarantee that increased physical activity in PE will ultimately reduce children’s weight. It is for this reason, that increasing the time kids spend in PE may have little impact on their weight. As discussed previously and intervention must consider the environment, culture, and most importantly the willingness to change. This theory of increasing physical education as an intervention lacks all three focuses; it simply helps to tell the student which class to attend at which time.

It is common knowledge that generally speaking, humans behave according to incentive. Children and young adults are the prime populations that justify their actions in this way. Parents teach their children that if they behave properly they will get a reward. Young adults are taught that if they get good grades they will be accepted to the college of their dreams. But all ages of humans are taught that eating sweet food will taste good, helping them to feel good. If the person likes what they are eating, the ‘like’ is the incentive, so why would the individual not try to benefit him or herself? Society teaches this lesson through advertisements, commercials, and other social media. In the movie “Super Size Me” by Morgan Spurlock, it is shown that children as young as 5 recognize ‘Wendy’ from Wendy’s before they recognize George Washington. This recognition study emphasizes the lack of knowledge that exists among certain demographics. Thus the lack of knowledge combined with the lack of incentive to be healthy fuels this growing epidemic of childhood obesity.

It is for these reasons that I believe that the educational system should require more health classes to be taken by students in public school in order to graduate. I will not argue the number of classes that should be added, but that students should have a thorough understanding of anatomy, nutrition, physical activity, and diseases. All four of these topics build the foundation of health and understanding how the human body functions. People may argue that this education reform would cost too much money. However I ask this audience to consider how much money would be saved from taxes, Medicare, hospital bills, and simple grocery store visits.

Work Cited:

(AAP) "Physical Fitness and Activity in Schools." American Academy of Pediatrics 105.5 (2000): 1156-158. Print.

Cawley, John, Chad Meyerhoefer, and David Newhouse. The Impact of State Physical Education Requirements On Youth Physical Activity and Overweight1. Diss. Cornell University, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, International Monetary Fund, 2005. Print.

Cottrell, R. R., Girvan, J. T., & McKenzie, J. F. (2009). Principles and Foundations of Health Promotion and Education (4th ed. ed.). San Francisco, CA: Pearson Benjamin Cummings.

Grunbaum, Jo Anne et al. 2004. “Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance – United States, 2003.” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 53(SS-2): 1-29.

Hayden, J. (2009). Introduction to Health Behavior Theory. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.

Heaney, C. A., & Israel, B. A. (2008). Social Networks and Social Support. In Health Behavior and Health Education: Theory, Research, and Practice (pp. 189-210). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Kahn, Emily B. et al. 2002. “The Effectiveness of Interventions to Increase Physical Activity: A Systematic Review.” American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 22(4S): 73-107.

McClellan, M., B.J. McNeil, and J.P. Newhouse. 1994. “Does More Intensive Treatment of Acute Myocardial Infarction in the Elderly Reduce Mortality?” Journal of the American Medical Association, 272(11): 859-66.