Health education in Israeli public schools by undergraduate medical students

There is general agreement that health education must be a major priority if 'Health for All' is to be achieved. Lack of interest by physicians and a shortage of health educators have limited health education. Students in the health professions have been an untapped potential resource for health education. We report here on an experience of over ten years with a student-sponsored and operated health education project for thousands of school children. In this voluntary project undergraduate medical students have designed and carried out a Health Education Programme (HEP) in the Beer-Sheva area's public schools. Initially, 130 medical students worked throughout the school year with 12-16-year-old pupils from 35 schools. Subsequently, the project has been expanded to other cities in Israel, including Ashkelon, Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa, involving also students in the allied health professions. The students arrange weekly meetings on smoking, drugs, sex education, personal hygiene, dental hygiene, physical fitness, and other preventive health issues. As part of an evaluation programme of the project, we conducted a prospective study in two high schools in Ashkelon. Pupils in the intervention group (121) showed a positive change in knowledge and attitude towards the various health issues as compared to 128 pupils in the control group. We suggest that the institution of similar programmes elsewhere can enhance community health education, as well as expose students in the health professions to community health problems.