Health Education Needs: Key Topics for Child & Adolescent Health Promotion

Over 90% working in child and adolescent health services want evidence-based materials. Key topics align with national guidelines, supporting the need for further development of such resources.

Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate to what extent employees in child health centers, school health services, and youth health centers desire evidence-based materials for use in health education and teaching, as well as the topics for which they want these materials.

Method: In the spring of 2024, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Department of Child and Adolescent Health Promotion Services (NASKO), distributed a survey via Nettskjema to employees in maternity care at health stations, child health centers, school health services, and youth health centers. One survey item (question 12) adressed the use of evidence-based materials in these services, offering three response options ("yes," "no," "don't know/not applicable"), followed by open-ended responses. Microsoft Copilot was used to categorize the free text responses.

Results: A total of 1077 individuals responded to the survey. The respondents represent all counties and were aged up to 69 years. All professions from the child health centers and school health services were represented: psychologist (0.2%), administrative staff (0.4%), doctor (2.1%), other (4.9%), midwife (6.5%), physiotherapist (8.4%), and public health nurse (77.4%; this includes public health nursestudents). A majority (90.6 %) indicated a need for evidence-based materials for use in health education and teaching. The 616 open-ended responses were categorized into overarching themes: violence and abuse, sexual health and relationships, mental health, physical health and activity, sleep, and parental guidance.

Conclusion: The results show a clear desire for the development of evidence-based teaching materials for use in child health centers and school health services. The identified topics align with the interdisciplinary topic "Public Health and Life Skills" in the school curriculum and the national guidelines. for health stations, school health services, and youth health stations. These results provide a solid foundation for further work in developing evidence-based teaching resources