Piko Bettina F, Bak Judit
Department of Psychiatry, Division of Behavioral Sciences Group, University of Szeged, Szentharomsag str. 5, 6722 Szeged, Hungary.
Health Educ Res. 2006 Oct;21(5):643-53. doi: 10.1093/her/cyl034. Epub 2006 Jun 1.
Despite a growing body of research into children's concepts of illness, many basic questions still remain. This study aims to describe 8- to 11-year olds' lay beliefs of health, illness, health promotion and disease prevention. Children responded to open-ended questions about health and illness by drawing and writing their responses. Two primary schools of two small towns of Békés County, Hungary, were invited to participate. The sample consisted of 128 primary school students (57% males and 43% females), one class from each of Grades 3, 4 and 5 within each location. Consistent with previous findings, the children of this sample have considerable knowledge about health, illness and disease risks. In addition, they seem health conscious and hold positive attitudes toward health and health promotion. Many respondents demonstrated a biomedical approach to health. At the same time, holistic views of health were also common. Children's past experiences (e.g. trivial infections) may play an important role in their concepts of disease causation. Ideas about health promotion were especially varied, with a few children describing complex guidelines.
尽管对儿童疾病概念的研究越来越多，但许多基本问题仍然存在。本研究旨在描述8至11岁儿童对健康、疾病、健康促进和疾病预防的通俗观念。孩子们通过画画和书写回答了关于健康和疾病的开放式问题。匈牙利贝凯什州两个小镇的两所小学被邀请参与。样本包括128名小学生（57%为男性，43%为女性），每个地点的三年级、四年级和五年级各有一个班级。与之前的研究结果一致，该样本中的儿童对健康、疾病和疾病风险有相当多的了解。此外，他们似乎有健康意识，对健康和健康促进持积极态度。许多受访者表现出对健康的生物医学观念。与此同时，整体健康观也很普遍。儿童过去的经历（如轻微感染）可能在他们对疾病病因的概念中起重要作用。关于健康促进的想法尤其多样，一些儿童描述了复杂的指导方针。
