Starting early : the impact of health education sessions on year four students

Abstract

Recent studies have shown an alarming prevalence of diet related diseases in Malta. In view of this reality a small scale educational intervention was conducted with two year 4 classes in State Schools. The intervention was composed of four main phases namely one pre-test questionnaire, implementing eight tailor made educational sessions in class on eight core topics covered in Home Economics, two post-test questionnaires and telephone interviews. A constructivist approach was adopted throughout the sessions. The sessions aimed to achieve behavioural and attitudinal change in participants. Whilst positive change was identified in the short-term, the majority of the participants reverted to old habits in the long-term (eight weeks after conducting the end of the educational sessions). Based on such results it is recommended that health education should start from an early age and should be on-going since younger children are developing both behavioural patterns and knowledge. Children do not learn with passive knowledge of experiences but from the results of their own actions. Thus children need to be given the exposure to such knowledge in order to develop the higher areas of the brain where children will be able to acquire such knowledge with the support of educators. Such interventions should be tailor made according to the participants’ abilities and age in order to be effective.