Back to school: using physicians to teach middle school health.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the ability of a lecture presentation by physicians to increase short-term knowledge about healthy lifestyles and behaviors among seventh grade students in the state of Delaware. METHODS: The School Health Committee of the Medical Society of Delaware sponsored an educational project aimed at seventh grade students in the form of a slide presentation covering issues in physical health, mental health and safety, and social health. Attending and resident physicians from multiple specialties presented this standard 30-minute lecture to the students in six Delaware public middle schools. This was followed by a question and answer period. We administered a questionnaire immediately before and after the talk to assess the acquisition of short-term knowledge. We compared the results using the ranksum test for paired, non-parametric data. RESULTS: Nine hundred fifty eight seventh grade students from six schools participated in the presentation. Eight hundred eighty two students (92 percent) completed the pre and post test. Overall for all students, the average number of questions answered correctly increased from 2.5 to 3.1 (p < 0.001) out of five. Those students with improved scores (50 percent of students) improved from 2.0 to 3.7 correct answers (p < 0.001). Students had significant improvements (p < 0.001) in three questions related to healthy lifestyle, tanning and depression. There was no significant improvement with questions related to drug abuse (p = 0.6445) and internet safety (p = 0.3353). CONCLUSIONS: Lecture presentations by local physicians to Delaware public school seventh grade students increased short-term knowledge on various health topics. Future studies should include control groups (for the content and mode of presentation), assessment of long-term knowledge, and evaluation of attitudes of student participants. WHAT'S NEW: This pilot project demonstrated the feasibility of a physician-led initiative to teach health topics to seventh grade students.