Original article
Impact of a Neuroscience-Based Health Education Course on High School Students’ Health Knowledge, Beliefs, and Behaviors

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2018.05.016Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the potential of an innovative high school neuroscience-based health course for implementation feasibility and impact on student outcomes.

Methods

Thirteen teachers from two high schools participated in this quasi-experimental pilot study including 395 students (202 in the intervention classes and 193 in the comparison classes). Students completed pre/post online surveys assessing their knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors. Our analysis strategy for multi-item measures was to estimate the effects of the intervention on latent change scores in structural equation models.

Results

Students in the neuroscience health classes showed a significant increase in neuroscience knowledge as compared to students in the comparison group (difference estimate in proportion correct metric, adjusted for covariates = .04; 95% confidence interval [.01, .06]). However, none of the other primary outcomes showed a significant difference between conditions. Teachers in the intervention group were observed implementing the neuroscience and health components more often than the self-regulation and growth mindset components. Students in the neuroscience group were more likely to mention the importance of caring for their brain and its link to health behaviors.

Conclusions

Findings demonstrate that information about the link between health behaviors and brain functioning can be successfully integrated into a high school health education course, although effects on student health beliefs and behaviors were not observed. Additional development work should focus on clarifying the theoretical mechanisms of change, integrating the neuroscience content with self-regulation and growth mindset, and providing additional professional development for teachers.

Section snippets

The present study

Our study objectives were to assess the feasibility of integrating neuroscience into high school health education and to evaluate the promise of a neuroscience-based health course as compared to thestandard health education course for a range of student outcomes using a quasi-experimental design. Primary outcomes focuson students’ awareness of the links between health behaviors and the brain, core neuroscience knowledge, growth mindset, self-monitoring and self-control, and self-efficacy for

Participants and setting

Students from two high schools in a large school district were selected based upon recommendation by district leadership and principal interest. School A had about 2,379 students during the 2014–2015 school year with about 27% of students eligible for freeor reduced price lunch. School B had an enrollment of 1,906 students during the 2014–2015 school year with about 24% of studentseligible for free or reduced price lunch, compared to the state average of 53%. Academic achievement in the two

Survey data preprocessing

We made an a priori decision to omit any survey data for which a student completed the entire battery in less than 10minutes, with the assumption that such a short response time indicated noncompliance with the survey procedures. The mean completion time was 30.5 minutes, SD = 8.1 for pretest and M = 27.5 minutes, SD = 8.4 for post-test. Post-test survey data for 15 participants were omitted from all further analyses by this criterion. No pretest survey responses met the criterion.

We also

Discussion

The goals of this pilot study were to examine the feasibility and promise of an innovative neuroscience-based health education course on a range of student outcomes. The curriculum was grounded in current developmental neuroscience and the health education literature, with an emphasis on the social-cognitive skills that promote healthy decision making such as growth mindset and self-regulation for behavior change. Evaluation of this new curriculum utilized a sample based primarily on

Acknowledgment

The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305A120659 to Duke University. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education. Special thanks to the teachers, students, administrators, curriculum developers and research assistants who contributed to this study.

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  • Conflicts of interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. During the implementation of this study,

    1

    Dr. Murray was at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.

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