Gender and Content Influence Second-Level Students’ Expectations of Health Education Seminars Provided in a Health Promoting Hospital Setting

Abstract

Purpose Our objec ve was to evaluate health educa on seminars off ered to school transi on year students (aged 15-16 years) within the hospital catchment area by means of analysis of self-completed student evalua ons of seminars from 2009 to 2013. Interna onally, detailed evalua ons of such seminars are not widely reported. Method The seminars aimed to increase students' knowledge about their health and well being and to enable behaviour change. Male and female students a ended one or more of fi ve hour-long seminars; Smoking, Minding Your Mind (MYM), Healthy Eating, Ac ve Living (HEAL), Cancer Awareness and Alcohol-a Diff erent Approach. Student opinions were recorded via Likert Scale on a structured form. Responses were dichotomised into those who found the seminars strongly met students' expecta ons and those who did not. Logis c Regression analysis taking into account gender, seminar type and other relevant variables was used to fi nd predictors of expecta on. Results There were in all 925 respondents. Factors predic ve of strongly met expecta ons were strongly fi nding the seminar interes ng, OR 5.11, 95% CI (3.43-7.61), balanced OR 2.49, 95% CI (1.62-3.80) and understandable, OR 2.47, 95% CI (1.53-4.01). These OR were all highly signifi cantly increased p < 0.001. There was also evidence of a signifi cant interac on (p = 0.039) between gender and type of seminar. Conclusion The importance of gender is demonstrated in this analysis. As with other health promo on ac vi es, more targeted student health seminars could enhance engagement.

Feasibility Study of the Secondary Level Active School Flag Programme: Study Protocol

“…The aims of TY are to “increase social awareness and social competence with ‘education through experience of adult and working life’ as a basis for personal development and maturity” [ 24 ]. TY programmes can cover various aspects of personal development, including visits to hospitals to learn about health behaviours [ 25 ], as well as taking part in other science programmes [ 26 ]. Many TY based programmes seek to develop youth leadership skills (i.e., Gaisce the President’s Award, Young Social Innovators, Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) future leaders, etc.).…”