School is the first step in health prevention

France has one of the best life expectancies in the world (85.2 years for women, 79.2 years for men). On the other hand, healthy life expectancy is much less satisfactory: 66.9 years for women, 65.5 years for men. However, it is a good indicator of the effectiveness of a health prevention system, since behavioral and socioeconomic determinants determine 60 to 70% of a person’s health status, which is much more than the prevention system itself. Numerous studies have shown a connection between health and educational level. To be optimal, such education must begin in school, in kindergarten. This is the concept reflected in the Medical Education Pathway launched through a ministerial circular in 2016. The Medical Academy accepted report which begins with the observation that in France ” Despite the very high level of school education of children and adolescents, health indicators for pathologies available for preventive measures are very unsatisfactory for many. »

Thus, this highlights the great heterogeneity of school health promotion and prevention interventions implemented within the health education program. Prevention is not integrated into school curricula, and teaching hours on health are far fewer than in other subjects. Of course, the teaching of life sciences is extensive, but these sciences ” are not synonymous with health and prevention. » Finally, most teachers are not trained in health prevention, in part because the very small number of school doctors and nurses, one of whose missions is this, do not allow it.

The Academy is well aware that “ The school should not and cannot be solely responsible for revising our health prevention policies. “But she adds that “it’sThis restoration will not reach its full effectiveness without school. “To do this, she gives several recommendations.

The first one, which determines the rest, is “ inclusion in school curricula, from kindergarten to senior grade, health education, » providing education « continuously and graduated from kindergarten through high school. »Added:

• ” Remodeling biology and health teaching » including elements of prevention.
• ” Generalization, strengthening and sustainability of the actions of the School of Health Promotion. “. Launched in 2020 and based on the voluntary work of educational institutions, it aims to ” link the activities carried out within the framework of “medical education” with other approaches, such as strengthening psychosocial skills. »
• ” Training primary school teachers to understand the determinants of health “, initial and continuous.
• ” Creation of educational content dedicated to teaching young citizens about preventive health issues, created jointly by health care representatives and national education teachers and available to the educational community on the website. EDUSKOL ”, which is a website of the Ministry of National Education and Youth that supports education professionals by providing them with numerous educational tools.