Abstract:

Background:
In the 1960s and 1970s in the U. S.A., health promotion programs began in order to instill health literacy into the general population so as to prevent situations such as those described in a study that found that 15% of patients in clinics could not understand instructions about taking tablets by mouth, 4 times a day, and 37% did not understand that medication had to be taken on an empty stomach (Parker, 1995).
Against this background and on the basis of our impressions of science teaching at a teacher training college, we became aware that graduates of the education system in Israel, lack any basic knowledge on the subject of medicine and health. And this despite official statements, as written in a Director General’s circular: "The issue of health in the education system touches on all subjects and should be addressed in every school year” (Director General Circular 2006).
In this work, we map those same gaps in knowledge on the topic of health and medicine found in graduates of the education system.

Method:
At the first stage we conducted interviews with pediatricians and family doctors to identify problematic issues – the knowledge treating doctors would want their patients to have.
On the basis of these interviews, an online questionnaire was devised for completion by students at our college. Students were differentiated by gender, age, marital status, subjects of study and areas of their previous studies. The questionnaire includes demographic details and questions on issues such as – contagious diseases, antibiotics, diabetes and cancer. 190 students responded.

Findings:
Some of the noticeable findings are: Antibiotic treatment in itself weakens the body. Patients’ bodies develop resistance to antibiotics as a result of frequent use. Lack of understanding about concepts of serious and chronic in relation to illnesses. The cause of type 1 diabetes is more likely to be genetic than type 2 diabetes. 10% of respondents marked the possibility that there are male and female cancers and another 38% did not know whether male and female cancers existed. Only 40% correctly responded to a question about the process of secondary growth creation.

Discussion and implications:
Standout findings correlated to the problems identified by family doctors during the first research stage. Knowledge that doctors wanted their patients to have, knowledge that in their eyes is essential to managing their health and health of their children and allows them to make informed decisions. The conclusions of this study will be passed onto the Department of Health Education at the Ministry of Health together with recommendations about integrating the specific examined topics that were found wanting into curricula.

References:
[1] Ministry of Education (2002). Director General Circular 8(a)/10, 2 April 2006 (In Hebrew)
[2] Parker, R. M., Baker, D. W., Williams, M. V., & Nurss, J. R. (1995). The test of functional health literacy in adults. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 10(10), 537-541.‏

Keywords:

Teaching Students, Health Knowledge, Attitudes toward Health Issues.