Content Analysis of Elementary Third Grade Textbooks Based On Attention to Health System Components

Introduction: Health education and the development of students' health culture are very important and a coherent and comprehensive program in this area is essential. The purpose of this study was to determine the content of elementary third grade textbooks based on the amount of attention to health system components. Methods: In this descriptive study, content analysis method was used. The statistical population of this study was all third grade elementary school books of 2016-2016 (6 volumes) including Persian titles, sciences, heavenly gifts, Quran, math and social education. Statistical sample is equal to statistical population. The research instrument was "Shanon Entropy". The content validity of this study was also confirmed by 10 educational and 5 medical specialists. First, the frequency of the components was determined on each page of the book. Then, the information load of each marker and its degree of importance relative to other components were calculated using “Shannon Entropy” software. Results: The highest attention among all components of health education was related to mental health component with 645 cases and the least attention to disability component with 13 frequencies. Among the sub-indices, the most significant coefficients were related to corrective movements, energetic substances, and health and sports nutrition with 0.037 and arthropod and rodent control components, prenatal care, addiction, drugs and its variants, effects on smoking, AIDS and familiarity with zero-valued diseases are of the least importance. Conclusions: Each of the components of these components has not been balanced and the textbooks have not covered a proportion of health education components. Therefore, it is suggested that authors of textbooks should pay attention to this issue in future editions.