School health education: does it cause an effect?

We have tried to raise several issues in this paper. First, schools are very complex systems. It is as difficult to generalize about schools as it is to generalize about the children in them. Second, because of this complexity, any serious discussion of outcomes resulting from any educational program requires a commitment to specificity in problem identification and planning. Third, the current national interest in health promotion, disease prevention and risk reduction has given rise to a greater emphasis on the principles of epidemiologic analysis. This kind of analysis facilitates a focus on outcomes which are, to varying degrees, contributing factors to specific health problems. Fourth, while there are those who fear that this emphasis may compromise the traditional goals of schools, there is clear evidence that the addition of an epidemiologic cause/effect dimension to school health education is consistent both with the tenets of major educational philosophers as well as the goals of health education as stated by scholars in the field. Fifth, the process of decision-making (the assessment of which is admittedly primitive at this point) represents the bridge across which the science of epidemiology can cooperatively join hands with the art of education toward the goal of enhancing the competence of children and youth.