Health education in textbooks of 16 countries: emphasis on biomedical and health promotion approaches

Abstract

Classically, Health Education has been based on the Biomedical Model (BM) of health, where the pathologic, curative and preventive conceptions are the main pillars. The more recent approach of Health Promotion (HP) looks for identification of healthy habits and for developing personal empowerment for healthy decision-making towards environmental challenges. The aim of the present study was to compare the emphases on either model (BM or HP) given by textbooks on the topic of Health Education of 16 countries. A total of 71 primary and secondary textbooks on the topic health education were analysed. A specific constructed grid was used for the textbook analysis. Text and image analysis of all countries textbooks allocated France, Malta and Italy to the BM pole whereas other countries such as Germany, Mozambique and Finland were preferentially linked to a HP approach.